Albert C. Barnes

Albert C. Barnes

Albert Coombs Barnes (January 2, 1872 – July 24, 1951) was an American physician and chemist, businessman, art collector, writer, and educator, the founder of the Barnes Foundation in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. With a fortune made from the development of the antiseptic drug Argyrol, used to treat gonorrhea; a business to promote it; and the well-timed sale of his company in 1929, in his 30s Barnes began to study and collect art. He acquired his first 20 pieces by commissioning his friend, the artist William Glackens, to buy modern work for him in Paris. After selling his business, he devoted himself to the study and collecting of art.

In 1922, Barnes established the Barnes Foundation, an educational institution, and housed his collection in a mansion built for that purpose in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. It was an educational institution based on his private collection of art, which was hung according to his theories of aesthetics and without curatorial commentary. The collection has numerous paintings by Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Modernist masters, as well as furniture, ancient artifacts, and highly crafted objects from different time periods. He created numerous restrictions to limit the number of visitors and intended to attract students.

He had a passion for educating the underprivileged, intending his collection to be viewed by students. He established a special relationship with Horace Mann Bond, the first black president of Lincoln University, a historically black college in the area, and its students. By his will, he gave the university a strong role in administration of his foundation: it had the authority to select candidates for four of the five original trustee seats.

Decades after his death, the Barnes Foundation gradually expanded its hours and visitation, but was still limited in visitors, and struggled financially to maintain the museum and preserve the collection. It finally decided to accept offers from the City of Philadelphia and regional foundations to relocate there to a site with greater public access for all classes. Its new building on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania opened in 2012, after the Foundation survived court challenges to its relocation decision.