John Baker RA (1736 - 1771)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

A Founder Member of the Royal Academy, John Baker was best-known for his detailed paintings of flowers and spent much of his career as a decorator of carriages. Born in 1736 and apprenticed to the coach-painter Thomas Maxfield of London, Baker began working as a coach-painter himself and became so adept at painting the flowers around coats of arms that he ended up specialising in flowers alone.

Between 1762 and 1768 Baker exhibited with the Society of Artists, who were considered the most important exhibiting society of the day. In 1768, along with some of the most prominent of the Society of Artists exhibitors, he defected to become a Founder Member of the then new Royal Academy of Arts.

Still Life with Flowers, shows the kind of work with which he made his name. It is believed to have been painted in the 1760s or early 1770s and was presented to the Academy by Charles Catton, a fellow coach-painter and Royal Academician, shortly after Baker’s death.

Baker died in London on 30 April 1771, just a few years after the founding of the Royal Academy. The Academy provided charitable financial support for Baker’s widow, and even helped to pay for her funeral in 1804. Baker had a son, John, who had been his apprentice before beginning his training as a painter at the Royal Academy Schools.