The Sitter
Portrait of Lady Catherine Barry née Jones
Catherine Jones was the daughter of Walter Jones (1693–1756) of Headford and his wife Olivia Coote. A record of her date of birth has not survived but she was probably born in the late 1720s or early 1730s.
As with many women of her time, Catherine Barry is chiefly recorded in the historical sources in relation to the men in her life.
On 3 January 1758, she married Nathaniel Barry (c.1725–1785), later President of the College. This portrait, by an unknown artist, is one of a pair of Catherine and Nathaniel, possibly painted to mark their marriage.
The marriage portraits of Lady Catherine and Nathaniel Barry were place on loan with RCPI by their family in 2023