Albert Coombs Barnes (January 2, 1872 – July 24, 1951) was an American chemist, businessman, art collector, writer, and educator, and the founder of the Barnes Foundation in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

Early life and education

Albert Coombs Barnes was born in

on January 2, 1872 to working-class parents. His father,

butcher A butcher is a person who may Animal slaughter, slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale ...

John J. Barnes, served in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

in Company D of the 82nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He lost his right arm at the

Battle of Cold Harbor The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought during the American Civil War near Mechanicsville, Virginia, from May 31 to June 12, 1864, with the most significant fighting occurring on June 3. It was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses ...

. After the war John Barnes received a disability pension of $8/month, and took jobs such as inspector, night watchman, and

letter carrier A mail carrier, also referred to as a mailman, mailwoman, mailperson, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, postperson, person of post, letter carrier (in American English), or colloquially postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Unite ...

when he could find them. Albert Barnes' mother, Lydia A. Schaffer, was a devout

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

who took him to African American camp meetings and revivals. The family lived first at 1466 Cook Street (now Wilt Street) in the rough working-class neighborhood of what is today Fishtown, and later in a slum area known as " the Neck" or "the Dumps". Albert Barnes completed elementary school at William Welsh Elementary School in 1885. That year Barnes was one of two boys from his school who were accepted at Central High School, a public school highly respected for its rigorous academic program. Barnes graduated at age 17 on June 27, 1889 with an A.B. degree, part of the 92nd class. At Central, Barnes became friends with William Glackens, who later became an artist and advised Barnes on his first collecting efforts. Barnes went on to attend medical school at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, enrolling in September 1889 and receiving his degree as of May 6, 1892. He earned his way by tutoring, boxing, and playing semi-professional baseball. In 1892, he interned at Penn's Graduate Hospital then known as Polyclinic Hospital in Philadelphia and at the Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh. He also is listed as having been an assistant physician at the State Hospital for the Insane in Warren, Pennsylvania in 1893. His experience as an intern convinced him that he was not suited to clinical practice. Although he obtained the degree of medical doctor, he never practiced. Barnes decided instead to pursue an interest in chemistry as it applied to the practice of medicine. He traveled to Germany, then a center of chemical research and education, studying in Berlin around 1895. Returning to the United States, he joined the pharmaceutical company H. K. Mulford in 1898. The company sent him back to Germany to study in Heidelberg, a city that Barnes described as "a loadstone icfor scientific investigators of every land." According to the ''Archiv für Experimentelle Pathologie und Pharmakologie'' he was among those receiving firsts and seconds, given June 26, 1901, from the Pharmakologischen Institut zu

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

Career

In 1899, he went into business with German chemist Hermann Hille (1871-1962), and created Argyrol, a

silver nitrate Silver nitrate is an inorganic compound with chemical formula . It is a versatile precursor to many other silver compounds, such as those used in photography. It is far less sensitive to light than the halides. It was once called ''lunar causti ...

antiseptic which was used in the treatment of ophthalmic infections and to prevent newborn infant blindness caused by gonorrhea. The two left H.K. Mulford and Company to organize a partnership called Barnes and Hille. This new company was founded in 1902. Hille ran production and Barnes ran sales. The company prospered financially, but the relationship between the two men waned. In 1908 the company was dissolved. Barnes went on to form A.C. Barnes Company and registered the trademark for Argyrol. In July 1929 Zonite Corporation of New York bought A.C. Barnes Company. The move was well timed as the stock market crashed in October that year.

Marriage and family

Barnes married Laura Leggett (1875–1966), daughter of a successful grocer in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, but had no children. When the Barnes Foundation was established, Laura Barnes was appointed as vice president of the board of trustees. Following the death of Captain Joseph Lapsley Wilson, she became the director of the Arboretum. In October 1940, she began the Arboretum School of the Barnes Foundation with the

botanist John Milton Fogg Jr. She taught plant materials.“Biographical Note,” Laura Leggett Barnes papers, The Barnes Foundation Archives, 2012. https://www.barnesfoundation.org/whats-on/collection/library-archives/finding-aids She regularly corresponded and exchanged plant specimens with other major institutions, such as the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. She succeeded her husband as president of the Foundation after his death in 1951. She died April 29, 1966, leaving her art collection to the

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

. Her work was recognized by the 1948 Schaffer Memorial Medal from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. In 1955, she became an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. She received an honorary doctorate in horticultural science from St. Joseph's University of Philadelphia.

Art collecting

In 1911, Barnes reconnected with his high school classmate William Glackens and in January 1912, just after turning 40 years old, Barnes sent him to Paris with $20,000 to buy paintings for him. Glackens returned with 33 works of art. Following the success of Glackens' buying campaign, Barnes traveled to Paris twice himself, the same year. In December, he met Gertrude and Leo Stein and purchased his first two Matisse paintings from them.Judith F. Dolkart, “To See as the Artist Sees: Albert C. Barnes and the Experiment in Education,” in ''The Barnes Foundation Masterworks,'' Judith F. Dolkart and Martha Lucy (Philadelphia: The Barnes Foundation, 2012), 11. Barnes purchased his collection of African Art from art dealer Paul Guillaume (1891–1934), who served briefly as the Barnes Foundation's "foreign secretary." The collection changed throughout Barnes' lifetime as he acquired pieces, moved them from room to room, gifted pieces, and sold them. The art works in the Barnes Foundation reflect how they were hung and placed at the time of his death in 1951. There are over 4,000 objects in the collection including over 900 paintings and nearly 900 pieces of wrought iron. Some major holdings include: 181 works by

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; ; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French people, French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, fe ...

, 69 works by

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...

, 59 works by

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

, 46 works by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

, and 7 paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. In 1923, Barnes Purchased ''Le Bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life)'', a painting once owned by Gertrude and Leo Stein, bought from Christian Tetzen-Lund through Paul Guillaume for 45,000 francs. In 1927, he purchased Renoir's ''The Artist’s Family'' from Claude Renoir through Galerie Barbazanges for $50,000. The collection also includes many other paintings and works by leading European and American artists, as well as African art, art from China, Greece, and Native American peoples.

Barnes Foundation

Barnes had a longtime interest in education; he held two hour long employee seminars at the end of the day in his factory. At the seminars, his primarily African American workforce would discuss philosophy, psychology, and aesthetics reading James, Dewey, and Santayana. With friend and mentor John Dewey he decided to expand his educational venture. In December 1922, the Barnes Foundation received its charter from the state of Pennsylvania as an educational institution. He hired Franco-American architect Paul Philippe Cret to build a gallery building, residence (administration building), and service building. The gallery served as a teaching tool for students to study art using a method based on the

scientific method The scientific method is an Empirical evidence, empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and ...

. Barnes consulted with attorney Owen Roberts (1875–1955) when setting up the by-laws and the indenture. In 1925, the buildings were completed and the Barnes Foundation opened. The collection is not hung traditionally, instead they are arranged in "ensembles" which are organized following the formal principles of light, color, line, and space. The focus of Barnes's teachings were on the art itself rather than its historic context, chronology, style, or genre. Barnes did not provide documentation on the meaning of each arrangement.

Operations

Since the Barnes Foundation was an educational institution, Barnes limited access to the collection, and often required people to make appointments by letter. He often declined visitors who wrote and asked to visit. He especially did not appreciate the wealthy and entitled requesting visits and would often rudely answer them. In 1939, Barnes sent a letter, posing as a secretary, informing

Walter Chrysler Walter Percy Chrysler (April 2, 1875 – August 18, 1940) was an American industrial pioneer in the automotive industry, automotive industry executive, and the founder and namesake of American Chrysler, Chrysler Corporation. Childhood Chrysler ...

he could not visit because he (Barnes) "is not to be disturbed during his strenuous efforts to break the world's record for gold-fish swallowing." Influenced by the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

's handling of the donated art collection of his late lawyer, John Graver Johnson, Barnes wanted to make his intentions clear in the Foundation's

indenture An indenture is a legal contract that reflects an agreement between two parties. Although the term is most familiarly used to refer to a labor contract between an employer and a laborer with an indentured servant status, historically indentures we ...

and trust. It stated, "all paintings should remain in exactly the places they are at the time of the death of Donor

arnes Arnes may refer to: * ARNES, Academic and Research Network of Slovenia * Arnes, Manitoba, Canada ** Arnes Airport, located northeast of Arnes, Manitoba, Canada * Arnes, Terra Alta, a town in Catalonia, Spain * Årnes, the administrative centre of ...

and his said wife."“Relocation of the Barnes Collection Fact Sheet” in the Philadelphia Opening Press Kit, ''The'' ''Barnes Foundation'', 2012 https://www.barnesfoundation.org/press/press-releases/move-press-kit-2012 From his death in 1951 the specific arrangement of the paintings and art remained the same until, at the request of the Barnes Foundation, the Montgomery County Orphans' Court overruled the indenture in 2004. Litigation to open the Barnes Foundation to the public began seven months after Barnes' death. In March 1961 it was opened to the public on Fridays and Saturdays, then expanded to three days a week in 1967, after Mrs. Barnes' death in '66, and remained that way until the 1990s. Barnes also had strong feelings against color photographs of the collection as the quality was not up to par with the then current technology. In regards to a request for color photographs Mrs. Barnes wrote to Henri Matisse: “Despite the improvement of the photographic process, it does not faithfully reproduce the exact colors of the artist. And there is further difficulty in making color plates for a book.” The stance is often criticized. The critic Hilton Kramer wrote of Matisse's ''Le bonheur de vivre'': "owing to its long sequestration in the collection of the Barnes Foundation, which never permitted its reproduction in color, it is the least familiar of modern masterpieces. Yet this painting was Matisse's own response to the hostility his work had met with in the Salon d'Automne of 1905."

Relationship with art world

In 1923, a public showing of Barnes' collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts proved that it was too

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

for most people's taste at the time. Some headlines from the time are, "Academy Opens Notable Exhibit: Modern Art Bewilders" and "America’s $6,000,000 Shrine For All the Craziest ‘Art’.” The critics ridiculed the show, prompting Barnes' long-lasting and well-publicized antagonism toward those he considered part of the art establishment. For example, he said to Edith Powell, of the '' Philadelphia Public Ledger,'' that she would never be a real art critic until she had relations with the ice man. Barnes' interests included what came to be called the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...

, and he followed its artists and writers. In March 1925, Barnes wrote an essay "Negro Art and America", published in the '' Survey Graphic'' of

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

, which was edited by Alain Locke. Barnes also continued to support young African American artists and musicians with scholarships to study at the Foundation. At the suggestion of Charles S. Johnson, he admitted artists Gwendolyn Bennett and Aaron Douglass as scholarship students in 1928. Douglas continued to illustrate books and paint murals before leaving to study and work in Paris. Barnes gave scholarships to singers James Boxwill and Florence Owens and art historian Paul B. Moses to study at the Foundation, and also provided funding for violinist David Auld to study at the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

, and for singer Lillian G. Hall to attend the Westminster Choir College in New Jersey. In 1943, Barnes sent California musician Ablyne Lockhart into the Deep South to become acquainted with "her roots". Lockhart sent Barnes vivid descriptions of her trip which included transcriptions of the spirituals she heard while visiting St. Helena Island in South Carolina. Barnes’s support of African Americans extended beyond the cultural disciplines. As early as 1917, Barnes helped his African American workers buy houses in Philadelphia. In the early 1930s, he provided a fellowship for Philadelphia physician DeHaven Hinkson to study gynecology in Paris. He also paid for the education of Louis and Gladys Dent, the children of Jeannette M. Dent, widow of an A.C. Barnes Company employee, at the Manual Training and Industrial School for Youth in New Jersey, an example of his abiding commitment to his employees and their families.”

Publications

Barnes wrote several books about his theories of art aesthetics. He was assisted by his educational staff, whom he also encouraged to publish their own writings. From 1925-26, he and the staff published articles in the ''Journal of the Barnes Foundation''. *''The Art in Painting'' (1925). *''The French Primitives and Their Forms from Their Origin to the End of the Fifteenth Century'' (1931), with Violette de Mazia (1899-1988). A native of Paris, at the time she was a teacher at the Foundation; in 1950, Barnes appointed her as Director of Education. *''The Art of Renoir'' (1935), with De Mazia. *''The Art of Henri-Matisse'' (1933), with De Mazia. *''The Art of Cézanne,'' with De Mazia. *''Art and Education'' (1929-1939), with

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and Education reform, educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century. The overridi ...

, Lawrence Buermeyer, Thomas Mullen, and De Mazia. These were collected essays by Barnes, Dewey, and his educational staff, originally published in the ''Journal of the Barnes Foundation'' (1925-1926). (Barnes hired Buermeyer (1889-1970) and Mullen (1897-), former students of Dewey, each to serve as Assistant Director of Education for a time; Dewey was Director during this period in what was essentially an honorary position.) "Historical Note," ''Art and Education'' manuscripts, Barnes Foundation Archives, 2006, https://www.barnesfoundation.org/whats-on/collection/library-archives/finding-aids.

Later years

In 1940, Barnes and his wife Laura purchased an 18th-century estate in West Pikeland Township, Pennsylvania, and named it " Ker-Feal" ( Breton for “House of Fidèle”) after their favorite dog. Barnes requested art dealer Georges Keller adopt and bring the dog he met while vacationing in Brittany, France to Merion. In 1946, Barnes met Horace Mann Bond, the first black president of Lincoln University, a

historically black college Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...

in southern

Chester County, Pennsylvania Chester County (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Tscheschter Kaundi''), colloquially referred to as Chesco, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in ...

. They established a friendship that led to Barnes' inviting Lincoln students to the collection. In October 1950, he amended the by-laws of the indenture allotting seats on the Board of Trustees to be "...filled by election of persons nominated by Lincoln University..." also adding that "no trustee shall be a member of the faculty or Board of Trustees or directors of the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Bryn Mawr, Haverford or Swarthmore Colleges, or the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts."

Relationship with Bertrand Russell

In the 1940s, Barnes helped salvage the career and life of the distinguished British philosopher

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

. Russell was living in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the summer of 1940, short of money and unable to earn an income from journalism or teaching. Barnes, who had been rebuffed by the

and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, had been impressed by Russell's battles with the Establishment. He invited Russell to teach philosophy at his Foundation. Russell invited Barnes to his cabin in

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; Washo language, Washo: ''dáʔaw'') is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the Western United States, straddling the border between California and Nevada. Lying at above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the largest a ...

for discussion. He secured a contract to teach for five years at an annual salary of $6,000, subsequently raised to $8,000, so Russell could give up his other teaching duties. The two men later fell out after Barnes was offended by the behavior of Russell's wife

Patricia Patricia is a feminine given name of Latin language, Latin origin. Derived from the Latin word ''Patrician (ancient Rome), patrician'', meaning 'noble', it is the feminine form of the masculine given name Patrick (given name), Patrick. Another we ...

, who insisted on calling herself 'Lady Russell'. Barnes wrote to Russell, saying "when we engaged you to teach we did not obligate ourselves to endure forever the trouble-making propensities of your wife", and looked for excuses to dismiss him. In 1942, when Russell agreed to give weekly lectures at the Rand School of Social Science, Barnes dismissed him for breach of contract. He claimed that the additional $2,000 per year of his salary was conditional upon Russell's teaching exclusively at the Foundation. Russell sued and was awarded $20,000— the amount owed being less than $4,000 and which the court expected Russell to be able to earn from teaching in a three-year period.

Death

Barnes died on July 24, 1951, in an automobile crash. Driving from Ker-Feal to Merion with his dog Fidèle, he failed to stop at a stop sign and was hit broadside by a truck at an intersection on Phoenixville Pike in Malvern. He was killed instantly. Fidèle was severely injured from the crash and was put down on the scene.

The Barnes Foundation in recent decades

From 1990 to 1998, Richard Glanton served as President. During his term a selection of paintings were approved by the Montgomery County Orphans' Court to tour and raise money for renovations. From 1993 to 1995, ''The'' ''Great French Paintings'' ''from the Barnes Foundation: Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Early Modern'' exhibited. The paintings and other works attracted huge crowds in seven international cities.“Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation: Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Early Modern, May 2, 1993- October 22, 1995,” ''The Barnes Foundation.'' https://www.barnesfoundation.org/whats-on/great-french-paintings# In 1998, Kimberly Camp became the first professional director in the history of the Barnes Foundation. When Camp arrived in the fall of 1998, the Foundation had a $3.3 million deficit and was embroiled in numerous court cases. Under Camp's leadership, the deficit was eliminated, excepting a $1 million structural deficit due to

FASB The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is a private standard-setting body whose primary purpose is to establish and improve Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) within the United States in the public's interest. The Securit ...

changes. Camp led the Foundation's restoration of the arboretum in Merion and its second campus, Ker-feal, a 132-acre farm in Chester Springs. The Ker-feal restoration included a full inventory and mold remediation, funded in part by the West Pikeland Township. Camp restaffed the Foundation with professionals in their respective fields. The education program was returned to the methods used by Barnes during his lifetime. The retail division became for the first time, a profit center. A licensing program was established allowing international use of images from the collection. Programs were established for regional K-12 schools, as was intended by Barnes as documented in his papers. Camp's work with her conservator, registrar, archivist and advisory committee created the Collection Assessment Project, a multi-year, multi-million effort to catalog the collection, conduct conservation assessments and catalog archival records. With over 1,000,000 records, the Barnes archives is now public. It was Camp's research that provided the basis for the petition to relocate the Barnes Foundation to its center city location. Documentation provided in court proved, in Barnes' own words, that the foundation could be moved to Philadelphia. Camp remained at the Foundation through 2005 to ensure its smooth transition to new leadership. In 2002 the Foundation petitioned the Montgomery County Orphans' Court for permission to expand its Board of Trustees and move its gallery collection to Philadelphia and in December 2004 the court approved the petition. A new building designed by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway opened on May 19, 2012. The move to Philadelphia was featured in the documentary film '' The Art of the Steal'' (2009).

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Albert C. 1872 births 1951 deaths Scientists from Philadelphia 19th-century American chemists Patent medicine businesspeople Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni Road incident deaths in Pennsylvania 20th-century American art collectors 20th-century American chemists