Thomas P. Barnett (February 11, 1870 – September 23, 1929), also known professionally as Tom Barnett and Tom P. Barnett, was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and painter from

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

. Barnett was nationally recognized for both his work in architecture and in painting.Leonard, John W. ''The Book of St. Louisans''. The St. Louis Republic, 1906, p. 38.

Architectural work

Barnett trained under his father, St. Louis architect George I. Barnett, who was known for designing public landmarks such as the renovation of the Old Courthouse, the Missouri Governor's Mansion, and the structures of the

Missouri Botanical Garden The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Its herbarium, with more than 6.6 million ...

. In painting, the younger Barnett trained at the

St. Louis School of Fine Arts The St. Louis School of Fine Arts was founded as the Saint Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts in 1879 as part of Washington University in St. Louis, and has continuously offered visual arts and sculpture education since then. Its purpose-buil ...

, with a fair list of awards and exhibitions. After graduating Saint Louis University in 1886, Tom Barnett joined with his brother and brother-in-law, George Dennis Barnett and John Ignatius Haynes, to form the architectural firm

Barnett, Haynes & Barnett Barnett, Haynes & Barnett was a prominent architectural firm based in St. Louis, Missouri. Their credits include many familiar St. Louis landmarks, especially a number related to the local Catholic church. Their best-known building is pr ...

. The firm continued the traditional motifs of the elder George Barnett. The combined legacy of two generations of Barnett designs were largely responsible for

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthet ...

being the dominant architectural influence in St. Louis. In 1904, Barnett served on the Commission of Architects for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (better known as the St. Louis World's Fair) and personally designed the Palace of Liberal Arts for which he earned the fair's ''Gold Medal for Architecture''.Levy, Florence N. ''American Art Annual''. American Art Annual Inc, 1903, p. 246. The following year, he would win the ''Bronze Medal for Architecture'' at the

Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, commonly also known as the Lewis and Clark Exposition, and officially known as the Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair, was a worldwide exposition held in Portlan ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. Other projects designed by Barnett included commercial buildings, residential (including

private place A private place is a self-governing enclave whose common areas (e.g. streets) are owned by the residents, and whose services are provided by the private sector. The history of St. Louis, Missouri, and its near suburbs is significant in the deve ...

s), and a significant number of religious structures. Surviving examples include the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, the

Adolphus Hotel Hotel Adolphus (often referred to as "The Adolphus") is an upscale hotel in the Main Street District of Downtown Dallas Dallas, Texas. A Dallas Landmark, it was for several years the tallest building in the state. Today, the hotel is part of Marr ...

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

, and the Saint Clement Catholic Church in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. File:Kingsbury Place.jpg, Kingsbury Place in St. Louis, 1902 File:Palace of Liberal Arts.jpg, Palace of Liberal Arts at the

1904 World's Fair The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 milli ...

File:Cathedral-basilica-of-saint-louis.jpg, Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, 1912 File:Adolphus01.jpg,

in Dallas, 1912 File:Cathedral Parish of St Pat, El Paso.jpg, Cathedral of St. Patrick in

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

, 1914 File:Busch Mausoleum 2013.jpg, Busch Mausoleum in

Bellefontaine Cemetery Bellefontaine Cemetery is a nonprofit, non-denominational cemetery and arboretum in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1849 as a rural cemetery, Bellefontaine is home to a number of architecturally significant monuments and mausoleums such as t ...

, 1915 File:Front of St. Clement Chicago.jpg, Saint Clement Catholic Church in Chicago, 1917

Painting

Later in life, Barnett turned his attentions primarily to painting. He studied under Paul Cornoyer, and followed the

American Impressionism American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose ...

style. Barnett characteristically used wide brush strokes and vibrant colors. His works typically idealized his subjects, and were emotionally expressive and optimistic. Barnett's paintings were well received in his lifetime. His works were exhibited at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the first exhibition of the

Society of Independent Artists Society of Independent Artists was an association of American artists founded in 1916 and based in New York. Background Based on the French Société des Artistes Indépendants, the goal of the society was to hold annual exhibitions by avant-gard ...

in New York, the

Cincinnati Art Museum The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ov ...

, the Art Institute of Chicago, the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

, and with regularity at the

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is one of the principal U.S. art museums, with paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from all corners of the world. Its three-story building stands in Forest Park in St. Louis, ...

. Barnett won both local and national awards including the ''Bronze Medal for Painting'' at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in 1905, and the ''First Ives Landscape Prize'' from the St. Louis Artist's Guild every year between 1914 and 1925. In 1922, Barnett painted the 12' by 6' mural, ''Riches of the Mines'', in the Missouri State Capitol in

Jefferson City Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the capital of Missouri, United States. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 census, ranking as the 15th most populous city in the state. It is also the county seat of Cole County and the principa ...

. The lunette representing a zinc mine in southwest Missouri was a favorite of art critics who marveled at Barnett's ability to depict drama and beauty in an otherwise bleak and desolate scene.Priddy, Bob & Jeffrey Ball. ''The Art of the Missouri Capitol; History in Canvas, Bronze, and Stone''. University of Missouri Press, 2011, p. 194. Barnett was a member of the Chicago Art Guild, National Arts Club, St. Louis Artist's Guild,

Salmagundi Club The Salmagundi Club, sometimes referred to as the Salmagundi Art Club, is a fine arts center founded in 1871 in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan, New York City. Since 1917, it has been located at 47 Fifth Avenue. , its membership roster ...

, Chicago Galleries Association, Allied Artists of America, and the

American Federation of Arts The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is a nonprofit organization that creates art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs. The organization’s founding in 1909 w ...

. Works by Barnett are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project comple ...

, the

, the art collection of the Missouri State Capitol, the

Missouri History Museum The Missouri History Museum in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri, showcases Missouri history. It is operated by the Missouri Historical Society, which was founded in 1866. Museum admission is free through a public subsidy by the Metropolitan ...

, the

Museum of Art and Archaeology The Museum of Art and Archaeology is the art museum of the University of Missouri. It is located at Mizzou North (former Ellis Fischel Cancer Center) on Business Loop 70 West in Columbia, Missouri. The Museum's galleries are free and open to ...

at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

, and the Busch family collection housed at Grant's Farm. File:Barnett winter river.jpg, ''Winter River Landscape'', 1907 File:Close of a Winter Day.jpg, ''Close of a Winter Day'', 1914, in the collection of the

File:Barnett forestparklandscape2.jpg, '' Forest Park Landscape'', 1916 File:Riches of the Mines 1922.jpg, ''Riches of the Mines'', 1922, mural in the Missouri State Capitol File:Barnett winter painting.jpg, ''In the Heart of the

Ozarks The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant port ...

'', 1925 File:Barnett Clipping.jpg, ''Pickle Stone Company'', 1925 File:Construction of the River des Peres Channel in Forest Park.jpg, ''Construction of the

River des Peres The River des Peres (French: ''rivière des Pères'') () is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 metropolitan river in St. Louis, Missouri. It is the backb ...

Channel in Forest Park'', 1927 File:Mid Winter 1929.jpg, ''Mid Winter'', 1929

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnett, Thomas P. 1870 births 1929 deaths Saint Louis University alumni 20th-century American painters American male painters American Impressionist painters Architects from St. Louis Members of the Salmagundi Club 20th-century American male artists