Albert Coombs Barnes (1872 - July 24, 1951) was a U.S. art collector.






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 received a B.S. degree from Central High School in Philadelphia and, at the age of twenty, his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. He also studied chemistry and pharmacology at the University of Berlin, and at the Ruprecht-Karls-Univerität in Heidelberg, where he befriended German scientist Herman Hille.

Back in America, Hille and Barnes developed a new antiseptic silver compound, Argyrol, and formed the firm of Barnes & Hille in 1902. In 1907, Barnes bought out his partner and in 1908 established the A. C. Barnes Company in Philadelphia. The success of this endeavor provided Dr. Barnes 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.

In 1918, Dr. Barnes attended John Dewey's seminars at Columbia University to study the scientific method in education. Dewey and Barnes quickly became close friends and collaborators. Dewey's influence and a desire to provide nondiscriminatory access to art and education led Barnes to create The Barnes Foundation in 1922, naming Dewey as the Foundation's first Director of Education in 1923. A new force had entered the world… a self-made man with substantial financial and intellectual resources, combative intensity, relentless curiosity, a keen eye for art, and a deeply-rooted respect for the common man.
As the setting for the Foundation, Barnes and his wife Laura purchased a twelve acre arboretum in Merion, near Philadelphia, owned by lawyer, Civil War veteran, and horticulturist Joseph Lapsley Wilson. Wilson served as the Director of the Arboretum and as a Foundation Trustee until his death in 1928.
Barnes hired the noted French architect Paul Philippe Cret (architect of 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, Dr. 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 Modernist art, 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. As a child, Barnes had attended African-American camp revival meetings, along with his mother who was a devout Methodist. It was at those religious retreats that Barnes developed an appreciation for African-American culture, especially music and creative expression. In addition to collecting African art, Barnes was seriously involved in African-American social and cultural issues, and supportive of African-American artists.
In 1940, Barnes purchased an 18th century farmhouse in Chester County, Pennsylvania, which he named "Ker-Feal," or, "House of Fidèle," after his favorite dog. He added onto the house while maintaining the original center section, and filled the house with antique furniture, ceramics, and other objects. While the Barneses used the house as a weekend retreat, Ker-Feal was always meant to also be used, as Barnes stated in his will, as "a living museum of art and … a botanical garden both to be used as part of the educational purposes of The Barnes Foundation in both the art and horticulture programs."
In 1940, Laura Barnes established the Arboretum School to provide students of horticulture, botany and landscape architecture the opportunity to study under top-notch teachers and work directly with living plant material. Arboretum School teachers have included professors from the University of Pennsylvania and other noted institutions. John M. Fogg (1898-1982), professor of botany and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, taught at the school for over sixty years, and served as Director of the Arboretum from 1966-79. Selected and planted to provide a wide range of botanical study material, the plants in the Arboretum also illustrate such aesthetic characteristics as form, texture, seasonality and floral display.

In 1993, the Foundation took some eighty paintings from the collection on a worldwide tour. Attendance records were broken at many venues as more than five million people saw the exhibit. The funds raised by this tour were used to restore the Gallery, where these treasures and the passionate vision of Dr. Barnes may be shared, studied and enjoyed by future generations.