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A Multi-Faceted Musical and Artistic Talent

Laura Wilson Barker was a composer, performer, and artist. Born in Thirkleby, United Kingdom, she was a child prodigy who performed alongside Louis Spohr and Paganini. An accomplished pianist and violinist, she studied privately under Cipriani Potter. Her musical contributions began in the mid-1830s, including her Seven Romances for voice and guitar published in 1837. Between 1843 and 1855, she served as a music teacher at the York School for the Blind.

Her musical repertoire is extensive, featuring works such as the Four Studies (1846), Revolution Waltzes (1849), and the violin sonata A Country Walk (1860). She also composed music for her husband's plays, including an overture and entr'acte to Joan of Arc (1871), and provided music for Shakespeare's As You Like It.

Theatrical Artistry and Personal Life

Beyond her musical compositions, Barker was an artist of theatrical subjects. Several of her paintings hang at Smallhythe Place in Kent, the home of Ellen Terry. Following her marriage in 1855 to the dramatist Tom Taylor, she was sometimes referred to as Laura W. Taylor or Mrs. Tom Taylor.

The couple resided at 84 Lavender Sweep, Battersea, where their Sunday musical soirees attracted notable figures such as Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, and Clara Schuman. After the death of her husband in 1880, she retired to Porch House, Coleshill, where she died in 1905.