Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Feary, John
FEARY, JOHN (fl. 1770–1788), landscape-painter, obtained a premium from the Society of Arts in 1766 for a drawing from the Duke of Richmond's gallery (for artists under twenty-one), and in 1776 was awarded a large silver pallet for a landscape. He first appears as an exhibitor with the Free Society of Artists in 1770, sending ‘A View from Maise [Maze] Hill in Greenwich Park,’ and ‘A View of a Storm breaking from the Surrey side of Westminster Bridge;’ in 1771 he sent to the same exhibition ‘A View taken from Highgate Hill.’ In 1772 he appears as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy with ‘A View of Clapham Common, taken from the North Side,’ and he was a frequent contributor up to 1788, in which year he exhibited ‘A View of Castle Hill, Devonshire,’ after which he disappears. Feary, who was of deformed stature, is stated to have been a pupil of Richard Wilson, R.A. [q. v.], and his landscapes were very neatly finished. He was employed to paint views of the parks and mansions of the nobility and gentry, some of which have been engraved.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Catalogues of the Royal Academy and the Free Society of Artists; Smith's Nollekens and his Times, i. 361; manuscript notes by Mr. Anderdon in Royal Academy Catalogues, print room, British Museum.]