Benjamin Barker was a member of an artistic family based in Bath from the late 18th century onwards. His older brother Thomas was more successful and more celebrated, but Benjamin worked steadily as a landscape painter throughout his life.

Although he enjoyed a steady income from painting and working as an art teacher, Benjamin Barker had money problems. He had built a huge, extravagant house, high up on the hills above Bath. By the late 1820s he was virtually bankrupt. He had to sell up, and go and live with his daughter. He continued to paint until the end of his life.