James Barry  (1741 – 1806) 

• Was an Irish painter
• Barry is best remembered for his six-part series of paintings entitled The Progress of Human Culture in the Great Room of the Royal Society of Arts in London. 
• Encyclopædia Britannica has this to say: He was impulsive; sometimes morose, sometimes sociable and urbane; jealous of his contemporaries.
• The displayed painting is a crop from: Self-Portrait, c. 1777.