Museums - Barnes Foundation

Dr. Albert C. Barnes established the Barnes Foundation in 1922 to “promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts.” Born in a working-class Philadelphia neighborhood in 1872, Barnes opened the A. C. Barnes Company in Philadelphia in 1908 to manufacture the antiseptic silver compound, Argyrol. The success of this endeavor provided him with a sizable fortune. Barnes’ extensive personal studies in psychology, philosophy, and art—particularly his reading of John Dewey, George Santayana, and William James—led him to form his own theories about art and education. Combining his educational concepts and his compassion for the working man with his burgeoning interest in the arts, Barnes initiated educational seminars and hung paintings by William Glackens, Ernest Lawson, and Maurice Prendergast in his Argyrol factory to be studied and discussed by his workers. His first formal classes in art appreciation were held at the factory for the benefit of his employees.
Barnes created the Barnes Foundation in 1922 as an educational institution located on a twelve-acre arboretum in Merion, near Philadelphia. He hired the noted French architect Paul Philippe Cret (responsible for the Ben Franklin Bridge and the Rodin Museum) to design the gallery and attached residence (now the administration building), which were completed in 1925. He commissioned bas-reliefs by the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, and tile work using African designs and themes by Enfield Pottery and Tile Works, to adorn the building.
By 1929, Barnes had sold his company and devoted himself full time to the foundation and collecting art of all types. He chose and arranged the works in “wall ensembles” in the gallery to illustrate for the foundation’s students the visual elements and aesthetic traditions he felt were evident in all art forms across periods and cultures. For the rest of his life, Barnes worked relentlessly to expand his collection and further the educational work of the foundation.
Barnes was particularly noted not only for his collection of paintings (which includes works by Rousseau, Modigliani, Renoir, Cezanne, Rubins, Monet, Gauguin, and Van Gogh), but also for his early and vigorous collecting of African art. While others collected African art as examples of “primitive” cultural artifacts, Barnes was outspoken in his view of African art as a major art form, at least as aesthetically important as other major art movements and traditions. Significant elements of his African art collection remain on the site today, which can be visited by appointment.