Albert Barnes & The Barnes Foundation’s Van Goghs: Starry Night’s Missed Chances

Albert Barnes, a premier US Post-Impressionist collector, amassed seven Van Goghs for his Foundation, yet famously missed chances to acquire both Starry Night paintings despite multiple offers. Martin Bailey chronicles these intriguing art tales.

Experiences with Van Gogh is a weekly blog site by Martin Bailey, The Art Paper’s enduring correspondent and expert on the Dutch painter. Released on Fridays, tales range from detailed products regarding this most intriguing artist, to academic pieces based upon precise examinations and discoveries.

Albert Barnes: A Visionary Collector

Barnes, who made his riches from the pharmaceutical sector, ended up being the leading US enthusiast of European Post-Impressionist paintings in the very early 20th century. In 1925 Barnes opened his own school, where he hung his paints.

The Starry Night Opportunities Barnes Missed

Yet Albert Barnes, the very first American to get a Van Gogh, also skipped extremely uncommon opportunities to obtain the “Starry Night” paintings. Van Gogh made 2 famous nocturnal scenes: Starry Night over the Rhône (September 1888), now at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and the much more effective Starry Night (June 1889), at New york city’s Museum of Modern Art. Both offers are videotaped in unpublished communication in the archive of the Barnes Structure.

The Esteemed Barnes Van Gogh Holdings

The Barnes Structure in Philly is well known for its Van Gogh collection, with an enviable seven pictures. It currently has among the biggest holdings of Van Goghs in the United States– after those at New york city’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Art Institute of Chicago.

2 years earlier, in 1923, the New York-based writer and agent Frank Washburn Freund had written to Barnes, checking if he might be curious about “among Van Gogh’s finest and essential landscape paintings”, Starry Night over the Rhône (September 1888).

Albert Barnes, the very first American to acquire a Van Gogh, likewise passed up very uncommon opportunities to get the “Starry Night” paints. Van Wisselingh included that Starry Night had actually been seen by “lots of important doubters, who all specified that it belongs to Van Gogh’s most crucial jobs”. Barnes wrote in his 1925 publication The Art in Paint that Van Gogh’s “colour is brilliant, abundant and juicy”. Houses and Figure (March-April 1890) is the last Van Gogh in the Barnes collection, in terms of when it was painted. My Close Friend Van Gogh/Emile Bernard supplies the first English translation of Bernard’s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UKand US).

Washburn Freund described that he can “offer this paint at an affordable figure”. The photo was “still in Europe”, he “can have it sent over for your examination”. Barnes stopped working to pursue the deal, perhaps since he was concerned that building his planned school might leave him short of funds.

Van Wisselingh included that Starry Night had actually been seen by “several vital critics, who all mentioned that it belongs to Van Gogh’s essential jobs”. Once again, Barnes failed to seek it. The painting was bought by the Paris dealership Paul Rosenberg, who later traded it with the Museum of Modern Art in 1941 in return for 3 lower pictures.

Notable Van Goghs in the Collection

Study In Still Life (May 1888) portrays blossoms in a blue majolica vase. They were probably picked on a spring stroll in the bordering countryside outside Arles. It was a precursor to the Sunflowers, which he painted three months later on. Van Gogh had included a red repainted border around the top and sides of the Barnes composition.

The Brothel (November 1888) was repainted not long after Gauguin’s arrival in Arles. It most likely illustrates a facility in Rue du Round d’Arles, which Van Gogh called the “Road of the Kind Girls”. Although Van Gogh would have seen the whorehouse, probably accompanied by Gauguin, he repainted the scene later on from memory. He had hoped to create this oil sketch right into a much more completed paint, however he apparently never ever did so.

Homes and Number (March-April 1890) is the last Van Gogh in the Barnes collection, in terms of when it was painted. It is an uncommon work, given that it is one of the artist’s couple of paints that stand for “memories of the north [the Netherlands], done when he was recouping from a mental strike. The steep roof coverings tilt at crazy angles and the walls have few straight lines, perhaps proof of his after that unstable mind. Surprisingly, this may have been amongst Barnes’ preferred Van Goghs, for it was the single instance which he picked to show in The Art in Paint.

We ought to point out an image that was when in the Barnes Collection, portraying a gorge in Les Alpilles, the hillsides above the asylum. The enthusiast explained it in 1912 as “the weirdest thing I ever before saw, I like it”. This is possibly the paint that ended up at Boston’s Gallery of Arts, Gorge, dating from October 1889. It stays vague why Barnes relinquished it.

Here additionally the face is made in a non-naturalistic colour, which highlights the impact of distortion and comparison.”

Martin Bailey: Van Gogh Expert & Author

His various other current publications include Dealing with Vincent van Gogh: The Residences & Landscapes that shaped the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, UK and United States), which provides a summary of the artist’s life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has actually been reissued (Batsford 2021, UK and US). My Good Friend Van Gogh/Emile Bernard provides the very first English translation of Bernard’s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UKand United States).

As for Barnes, when he discussed Reclining Nude he focussed on the brushwork: “The entire painting, consisting of the naked, is made with the characteristic slim, long, ribbon-like places of contrasting colour”.

Blake Gopnik, author of in 2014’s important bio of Barnes (The Radical’s Museum), creates that it mirrors the enthusiast’s “preference for the lascivious that has frequently been papered over however is of an item with Barnes’s disdain for the tame”.

Barnes later on had the possibility to get one more Van Gogh nighttime scene. In 1936, the Van Wisselingh gallery in Amsterdam contacted Barnes, to “take the liberty of bringing to your focus” the fact that Starry Evening was readily available for sale. They clarified that the painting had been in a Rotterdam private collection for thirty years and confined a black-and-white picture.

Barnes’ Collecting Legacy & Art Philosophy

Because until really just recently pictures from the Barnes Foundation were never ever provided to other places (aside from for an outstanding touring exhibit in 1993-95), his Van Goghs are not well known. Up until the 1990s they were not usually permitted to be duplicated as colour pictures.

Barnes passed away in 1951 and in 2012 his collection was moved from Merion to a gallery in central Philly, maintaining his very idiosyncratic screen. The seven Van Goghs are not hung with each other, yet scattered amongst numerous spaces.

Martin has created a variety of bestselling publications on Van Gogh’s years in France: The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Work of art (Frances Lincoln 2013, UK and US), Workshop of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016, UK and United States), Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, UK and United States) and Van Gogh’s Finale: Auvers and the Musician’s Rise to Popularity (Frances Lincoln 2021, UK and US). The Sunflowers are Mine (2024, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Ending (2024, UK and US) are likewise now available in a much more small paperback style.

Martin Bailey is a leading Van Gogh professional and unique contributor for The Art Newspaper. He has curated exhibitions at the Barbican Art Gallery, Compton Verney/National Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain.

All of the Barnes Van Goghs are from the musician’s French period (1886-90), which represents his finest years. Works variety from Reclining Nude, painted in Paris, to Homes and Number, done at the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

Barnes wrote in his 1925 book The Art in Paint that Van Gogh’s “colour is intense, abundant and juicy”. He included that the musician “infuses a spirit of emotional tenseness right into styles usually peaceful or made up, and a feverish, nearly delirious, high quality right into situations intrinsically remarkable”. The collector ended that Van Gogh’s “success in attaining a form that is initial, animated and enticing, entitles him to a high area” in late 19th-century painting.

Barnes did extremely well in his Van Gogh acquisitions, because just about one were bought before the publication of Jacob-Baart de la Faille’s 1928 catalogue raisonné, which gave a firm foundation for understanding the artist’s body of work. Purchasing 7 jobs implied Barnes was definitely America’s the majority of well-balanced enthusiast of the work of Van Gogh.

The Factory (July-September 1887) was repainted a few months later, on the borders of Paris, Asnières. It stands for a rather not likely subject: a glass manufacturing facility, with rounds of glass kept outside in the foreground.

The Mail Carrier (November-December 1888) shows Joseph Roulin, set versus a fictional flowery background. It is one of 6 repainted portraits of his friend, with his distinct bushy beard. This portrait was likewise done during Gauguin’s two-month stay in Arles.

Barnes wrote of the work: “Distortions in the attributes are rather forthcoming, with the effect of distortion enhanced by use of obviously abnormal colour-effects: the moustache and a good component of the beard are made in a pea-green colour, shielding off in some locations to a yellowish-green. Right here once more the keynote of the style is comparison.”

Despite overlooking both Starry Nights, Barnes was a real US leader when it came to getting Van Goghs. He had seven operate in total amount: in 1912 he had purchased The Postman, complied with by 2 even more paintings later on that year. He made further purchases in 1922 and 1924, with his last acquisition, Study in still life, in 1933.

The Smoker was until lately believed to have been repainted in December 1888, while Van Gogh was dealing with Paul Gauguin, yet it has actually now been re-dated to February that year, simply a couple of days after the Dutchman’s arrival in Arles. The unidentified caretaker uses workmen’s garments and the artist might well have found him where he was staying, at the Hotel Carrell.