Barnes Foundation
- Architect
- Paul Philippe Cret
- Year
- 1922
- Style
- Beaux-Arts
- City
- Philadelphia, PA
The Barnes Foundation was founded in 1922 by Albert C. Barnes, who made his fortune co-developing Argyrol, an antiseptic silver compound used to treat gonorrhea and other infections, and who sold his company just months before the 1929 stock market crash. Barnes commissioned Paul Philippe Cret to design the foundation's original galleries; the collection itself, more than 4,000 objects including over 900 paintings estimated at roughly $25 billion, is primarily Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Modernist work alongside African, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, and Native American art. Financial decline in the 1990s eventually pushed the foundation to leave Merion for a new building on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 2012.
the building
The collection. The foundation's holdings include more than 900 paintings by Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Modernist masters, valued at an estimated $25 billion, along with African art, antiquities from China, Egypt, and Greece, and Native American art.
the style
Beaux-Arts (c. 1880–1930): Gilded Age grandeur: paired giant columns, rough-cut stone bases, rooftop sculpture, and monumental stairs.
More on Beaux-Artssignificance
By the 1990s the foundation faced financial decline, a crisis that eventually led to the 2012 move from Merion to the current Benjamin Franklin Parkway building.
nearby
- Family Court Building
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- Arch Street Presbyterian Church