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The Barnes Foundation: Masterworks
The Barnes Foundation, established by scientist, entrepreneur, and educator Dr. Albert C. Barnes in 1922, is home to a legendary art collection. Barnes assembled one of the world’s largest and finest groups of post-impressionist and early modern paintings, with holdings by such luminaries as Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Rousseau, Modigliani, Soutine, Manet, Monet, Seurat, Degas, Van Gogh, and Gauguin.
The Foundation’s collection also holds significant examples of American art, including works by Demuth, Glackens, and the Prendergasts; African sculpture; Native American ceramics, jewelry, and textiles; Asian paintings, prints, and sculptures; medieval manuscripts and sculptures; Old Master paintings by El Greco, Rubens, Titian, and others; ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art; and American and European decorative arts and metalwork.
The presentation of the collection reflects Barnes’s educational and aesthetic approach: symmetrical “ensembles,” or wall compositions, combine works of different periods, mediums, cultures, and styles for the purpose of comparison and study.
Texts by Judith F. Dolkart and Martha Lucy explore the Barnes Foundation’s collection, educational mission, ensembles, and individual works. Large color plates, little-seen archival photographs, and numerous gatefolds illustrate 150 of the greatest hits of the collection and twenty gallery ensembles.
The Foundation’s collection also holds significant examples of American art, including works by Demuth, Glackens, and the Prendergasts; African sculpture; Native American ceramics, jewelry, and textiles; Asian paintings, prints, and sculptures; medieval manuscripts and sculptures; Old Master paintings by El Greco, Rubens, Titian, and others; ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art; and American and European decorative arts and metalwork.
The presentation of the collection reflects Barnes’s educational and aesthetic approach: symmetrical “ensembles,” or wall compositions, combine works of different periods, mediums, cultures, and styles for the purpose of comparison and study.
Texts by Judith F. Dolkart and Martha Lucy explore the Barnes Foundation’s collection, educational mission, ensembles, and individual works. Large color plates, little-seen archival photographs, and numerous gatefolds illustrate 150 of the greatest hits of the collection and twenty gallery ensembles.
- GenresArtNonfictionArt History
374 pages, Hardcover
First published May 22, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 1, 2013
It has been many years since I read a really large and challenging catalog for a museum, this book for the Barnes is a wonder and much appreciated. At 355 pages it is a major work and at last - at LAST - we get to see the Barnes rooms in all their glory and stress. The glory being the incredible paintings that Doctor Barnes collected, the stress being the crazy super-structure of display that he forced upon his holdings. The Barnes is arguably the greatest collection of art ever assembled by one man, King Louis XIV of France perhaps being the trump, but that only tells a small part of the story. A single room in the Barnes has more masterpieces than any secondary museum in the world, it's a fact. The numbers are just staggering: 181 Renoirs (you will be sick of his later works by the time you leave), 69 absolutely amazing Cezannes - just stunning work, great Picassos you've never seen, more Modigillianis than you knew he painted, and the Soutines - just wow, amazing - and it just goes on and on and on; major Van Goghs, old masters, New Mexico icons, and on and on. This book does the collection justice. That said, the texts are surface glosses at best, but just move past that, the illustrations are amazing.
September 17, 2016
This book cannot match the splendor of actually viewing the entire collection at the Barnes Foundation, but it is a good second. I recently was fortunate enough to visit these works of art in Philadelphia and I will revisit this book often to remind me of that visit.
The book shows each room/gallery and highlights a few of the major works in each. The printing is spectacular. Many times, art book photographs cannot capture the essence of the works. I believe this one does.
The narrative describes how the works were collected and the decisions on how they are displayed.
If you are a Matisse lover (or any art lover), you will thoroughly enjoy this book.
The book shows each room/gallery and highlights a few of the major works in each. The printing is spectacular. Many times, art book photographs cannot capture the essence of the works. I believe this one does.
The narrative describes how the works were collected and the decisions on how they are displayed.
If you are a Matisse lover (or any art lover), you will thoroughly enjoy this book.
November 11, 2017
I picked this book up when I visited The Barnes Foundation in October. The book features a wall (and essays on most of the pieces on any particular wall) in 21 of the rooms/ensembles in the collection as well as an essay on Barnes and his art and education philosophy, and a selection of some of the works that are not part of the ensembles. The Barnes has 181 Renoirs alone in the collection as well as works by Cezanne, Soutine, Modigliani, Matisse, Van Gogh and others. Some of the Pueblo pottery collection, African Art and Industrial Art is also included in the volume. Visiting the Foundation is a spectacular experience but reliving it through this book and learning more about how the pieces on each wall relate to one another was both illuminating and joyful!
December 28, 2014
After my first visit to the Barnes this year I have returned over and over again to this beautifully produced book. The images are haunting; the colors true; the selection excellent. The price incredibly low for such a treasure. You can read my report of two days spent at the Barnes at The Arts Fuse website: http://artsfuse.org/120109/fuse-visua...
August 19, 2014
I should have read this before I visited the Barnes again. I think I need to go back by myself and spend time studying the paintings discussed.
April 15, 2025
This book covers the Barnes Collection and documents how it was hung in its Merion, PA location. The book was published in 2012, the year the collection was moved to its new location in Philadelphia.
I didn’t see a count, but the book is enormous (too heavy to hold) but I expect that it is a complete catalog of the collection of 181 Renoirs, 69 Cezannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos, 21 Soutines, 18 Rousseaus, 16 Modiglianis, 11 Degas, 7 Van Goghs, 6 Seurats, 4 Manets and 4 Monets. The mounted forged hardware collection is covered as are representative pieces of the large collection of African art.
A unique feature of this collection is its arrangement on the museum walls. Barnes grouped his paintings into what he called “ensembles” and the Merion museum was designed to accommodate these arrangements. The Philadelphi Museum was designed to continue these ensembles as arranged by Barnes.
Another feature of the collection, also desired by Barnes, is the minimal documentation of the paintings so the viewer can “see what the artist sees” without distraction. The artist's name is in small letters on the picture frame. There are no plaques with the painting's name or date, nor acquisition information or anything on materials. When the artist cannot be identified, the label on the frame is national, such as “French” or “German”.
(In the Philadelphia museum, you can now use your cell phone to get further information.)
The book is arranged by room showing the walls (labeled north, south, east or west) so you can see how the ensembles are placed on the walls. This is followed by full page color photos of the most significant paintings of that room or wall followed by what appears (I did not check for all) to have a cameo reproduction and commentary for each painting.
While the paintings, which are the largest post-modern collection outside of Europe, are the star of the museum and the book, I was glad to see some documentation of the forged hardware and narrative information on the African collection.
There are several fold out pages. One is of a Matisse triptych created specifically for a space in a Merion wall for which the architects similarly designed a space, again dominating a room for the Philadelphia museum.
Barnes moved his paintings around a lot and there is debate about what he was trying to achieve. Some say they are arranged by brush strokes, others by some calculus of style, size and content. The triptychs suggest they are arranged by size and color or content and how they balance the room's hardware items and furniture. Others say he arranged them so that each ensemble would have at least one very significant painting with the rest hung for balance around it.
The book is printed on high quality paper that works for showing beauty of the paintings and for the aesthetics of the page, but the gray (maybe 8 point) small letters on gloss are hard on the eyes. Of course, this is a reference and not a reading book.
Because it is impossible to take in this collection in one visit, this is a good book for before and/or after your trip to help maximize your time at the Barnes.
I didn’t see a count, but the book is enormous (too heavy to hold) but I expect that it is a complete catalog of the collection of 181 Renoirs, 69 Cezannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos, 21 Soutines, 18 Rousseaus, 16 Modiglianis, 11 Degas, 7 Van Goghs, 6 Seurats, 4 Manets and 4 Monets. The mounted forged hardware collection is covered as are representative pieces of the large collection of African art.
A unique feature of this collection is its arrangement on the museum walls. Barnes grouped his paintings into what he called “ensembles” and the Merion museum was designed to accommodate these arrangements. The Philadelphi Museum was designed to continue these ensembles as arranged by Barnes.
Another feature of the collection, also desired by Barnes, is the minimal documentation of the paintings so the viewer can “see what the artist sees” without distraction. The artist's name is in small letters on the picture frame. There are no plaques with the painting's name or date, nor acquisition information or anything on materials. When the artist cannot be identified, the label on the frame is national, such as “French” or “German”.
(In the Philadelphia museum, you can now use your cell phone to get further information.)
The book is arranged by room showing the walls (labeled north, south, east or west) so you can see how the ensembles are placed on the walls. This is followed by full page color photos of the most significant paintings of that room or wall followed by what appears (I did not check for all) to have a cameo reproduction and commentary for each painting.
While the paintings, which are the largest post-modern collection outside of Europe, are the star of the museum and the book, I was glad to see some documentation of the forged hardware and narrative information on the African collection.
There are several fold out pages. One is of a Matisse triptych created specifically for a space in a Merion wall for which the architects similarly designed a space, again dominating a room for the Philadelphia museum.
Barnes moved his paintings around a lot and there is debate about what he was trying to achieve. Some say they are arranged by brush strokes, others by some calculus of style, size and content. The triptychs suggest they are arranged by size and color or content and how they balance the room's hardware items and furniture. Others say he arranged them so that each ensemble would have at least one very significant painting with the rest hung for balance around it.
The book is printed on high quality paper that works for showing beauty of the paintings and for the aesthetics of the page, but the gray (maybe 8 point) small letters on gloss are hard on the eyes. Of course, this is a reference and not a reading book.
Because it is impossible to take in this collection in one visit, this is a good book for before and/or after your trip to help maximize your time at the Barnes.
September 15, 2020
The Barnes Collection itself is abhorant, but this catalogue is an absolutely excellent depiction of it. It includes an introductory essay about Barnes and the history of the collection; then the catalogue itself is broken into different rooms, opening with an installation image of the room and a short text discussing the overall grouping; each is followed by larger images of a selection of important works from that room and a short text discussing each work individually.
I find the curatorial strategy of Barnes’s presentation to be ahistorical and totally inappropriate to the types of work he collected (functional objects and important modern paintings of the 19th century and early 20th century, with a few earlier paintings as well) as it subordinates their individual meaning or uses to a simplistic, formally-driven decorative scheme, and the idea that he required these artworks to be entombed in this hideous arrangement in perpetuity is a cultural crime. However, this book does an excellent job of both illustrating the way the artworks are installed and what this does to them, as well as wresting them away from this curatorially-imposed prison and showing them as the individual works that they should be.
I find the curatorial strategy of Barnes’s presentation to be ahistorical and totally inappropriate to the types of work he collected (functional objects and important modern paintings of the 19th century and early 20th century, with a few earlier paintings as well) as it subordinates their individual meaning or uses to a simplistic, formally-driven decorative scheme, and the idea that he required these artworks to be entombed in this hideous arrangement in perpetuity is a cultural crime. However, this book does an excellent job of both illustrating the way the artworks are installed and what this does to them, as well as wresting them away from this curatorially-imposed prison and showing them as the individual works that they should be.
January 23, 2021
An exceptional survey with beautiful photographs.
January 23, 2023
A richly illustrated and sturdy guide book to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.
December 6, 2020
I don't usually "read" "coffee-table" art books but I found myself reading this one cover to cover within a week. I picked it up at the "new" Philadelphia Barnes museum, having visited the collection previously when it was in Upper Merion, and enjoying it equally in its new (blasphemous) locale. The collection is incredibly dense and impossible to absorb fully in a single visit, or even in several visits. This is true of most major museums (musei?) I suppose, but somehow since this was one man's collection, basically at his house, I think, like most people, I mistakenly expected to conquer it in a day. The museum is a bit off-putting in that it typically features upwards of 20 masterpieces on a single, parlor-sized wall. This book comes in quite handy in that it allows one to spend the time with individual pieces in the collection that they deserve, so that when you go to the "room (in the book) where they keep the Cezannes, you can look through the paintings, you can look right through them", as Jonathan Richman might sing; that is, it allows you to devote the proper amount of attention to each of them. But beyond that, I love the way the book is laid out, looking at the museum room-by-room. First it looks at the ensembles laid out by Dr. Barnes on each wall. Dr. Barnes was an artist in his own right, using the master paintings themselves as his medium, assembling them in an orderly, symmetrical fashion to bring out the resonances and echoes between them in color, line, form and space with added clues from independently-assembled metalworks. Barnes presents his ensembles more as a vehicle for teaching than as Art in themselves, but the fact that the ensemble layouts live on beyond his classes says something about their artistic value too, I think. Then, the book looks at individual works with extensive full-page color prints. Finally, these are followed by brief individual discussions referenced by thumbnail versions of the highlighted paintings. It is not comprehensive in that it skips over a few rooms and many artworks, but it explores almost all of the major works, and the individual discussions always bring out some aspects or details that I found illuminating. The collection is heavy on representational works by impressionists from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, especially Renoir and Cezanne. Anyway, I really found the book to be enjoyable both in its presentation and in its writing. Recommended for anyone interested in visiting, or having already visited, this museum.
October 2, 2012
Visiting the Barnes collection is a bit overwhelming. I haven't been to the new location, but it is supposed to reproduce the original rooms and arrangements of art, so I'm sure the effect is the same.
This book gives a little history of Albert Barnes and his collection and ideas about education and art, but mostly it is devoted to a selection of the paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts he put together and how and why he placed the different pieces where he did.
The author notes that the arrangements kept changing as new purchases were made, and as Barnes looked at what he owned and had new insights into the works, both individually and in comparison to each other. He felt that art needed to be constantly observed and thought about and discussed, and was flexible and open to new ways of seeing.
There are still too many Renoirs for my taste, but that's a small complaint. Barnes amassed so many amazing artworks that this selection, which only scratches the surface, needs leisurely digestion. When I toured the Barnes a few years ago I don't remember even seeing a lot of them.
But having revisited the collection through this overview, I may be better prepared to encounter them again. In any case, the fine reproductions, accompanied by a historical setting for each artist and work, are worth checking out even if you can't get to Philadelphia in person to wonder at Barnes' impressive artistic vision.
This book gives a little history of Albert Barnes and his collection and ideas about education and art, but mostly it is devoted to a selection of the paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts he put together and how and why he placed the different pieces where he did.
The author notes that the arrangements kept changing as new purchases were made, and as Barnes looked at what he owned and had new insights into the works, both individually and in comparison to each other. He felt that art needed to be constantly observed and thought about and discussed, and was flexible and open to new ways of seeing.
There are still too many Renoirs for my taste, but that's a small complaint. Barnes amassed so many amazing artworks that this selection, which only scratches the surface, needs leisurely digestion. When I toured the Barnes a few years ago I don't remember even seeing a lot of them.
But having revisited the collection through this overview, I may be better prepared to encounter them again. In any case, the fine reproductions, accompanied by a historical setting for each artist and work, are worth checking out even if you can't get to Philadelphia in person to wonder at Barnes' impressive artistic vision.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews