05/23/2025
Sept. 13, 1968
Dear Mildred,
Enjoyed revisiting treasures in National Gallery — The museums in Philadelphia are wonderful. Especially was entranced with the Barnes Foundation collection.
Love,
Elizabeth
Barnes didn’t just want to show art — he wanted to teach through art. His educational philosophy focused on visual literacy, encouraging viewers to look closely, compare, and find formal relationships between works of different cultures and periods. He arranged the galleries in “ensembles” — unconventional groupings of art and objects that he believed stimulated deeper learning. When Elizabeth visited, the Barnes was still located in Merion, Pennsylvania, in a secluded, residential area. The galleries were housed in a mansion-like building that was more intimate and unconventional than a standard museum. Admission was limited — visitors needed to make an appointment and were often required to justify their interest. The gallery walls were densely packed with art — no labels, no wall text, no placards. You were expected to look, not read. Paintings were arranged not chronologically or by artist, but in ensembles designed by Barnes himself — mixing a Cézanne with a Pennsylvania Dutch chest, a hinge, and an African mask — to teach viewers about visual relationships like line, light, color, and space. This was a radical, even subversive approach at the time.
Major Artists Featured:
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Over 180 paintings, the largest Renoir collection in the world.
• Paul Cézanne – Around 60 works (one of the most important Cézanne collections globally).
• Henri Matisse – Including his monumental mural The Dance II.
• Pablo Picasso – Early and later works.
• Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat, and Amedeo Modigliani.
Other Holdings:
• Over 2,500 objects, including:
• African sculpture (one of the earliest U.S. institutions to value African art as fine art).
• American decorative arts.
• Old master paintings.
• Iron door hinges, keyholes, and locks — arranged aesthetically alongside the paintings.
