The Barnes Collection, Merion, PA

Today Pat & I visited the famed, and at times troubled, Barnes Collection near Philadelphia. It was quite an experience in a number of ways. The collection is located in a residential neighborhood. The building is a massive structure, not really particularly appealing to me. It looks like many other public buildings. The grounds are spectacular though with many very special specimens throughout. Mrs. Barnes established the Arboretum School in 1940, many years after her husband, Dr. Albert Barnes established the Barnes Foundation in 1922. The building itself was designed by a French architect and was completed in 1925. The whole premise of the collection was to educate students in art theory, not in how to see the different elements, like boats, trees, buildings and people. An interesting note that I discovered is that Dr. Barnes collected a major number of Auguste Renoir paintings. This collection has 160 pictures by Renoir. This numbers more paintings in one collection than in all of the museums in Paris combined. The whole collection is displayed in such a manner as to explain art theory to the students. Therefore, Dr. Barnes would display disparate styles, periods and subject on one wall just to explain theory. This was totally unlike any collection Pat & I have ever visited. It was a bit unusual and we were not quite sure we loved it, but it was an impressive collection nonetheless. I would for sure recommend either a docent tour or the recorded tape. It would be hard to figure out what was going on if you did not have some sort of an inside track. The Foundation has been embroiled in controversy and legal issues for years regarding the trust Dr. Barnes set up for his collection. It was not allowed to travel for exhibition anywhere, but did so in 1993-1995 much to the consternation of various parties. Interestingly, Pat & I happened to be in Paris in 1993 and we had the opportunity to see the exhibition. It was a superb experience in the new (at that time) Musee d'Orsay. At any rate, the Foundation is perpetually a bit low on cash and wants to move the whole collection to Center City somewhere and has received court approval to do so. They expect to have the new facility opened by 2012 if all goes well and there aren't more lawsuits to keep it in Merion. We are now in Center City during a major snowstorm (12") with the intention of seeing the famed Philadelphia Flower Show which starts tomorrow, Monday.