a millionaire. He used his money to begin and to
maintain the Barnes Collection, an impressive
array of Impressionist and post-Impressionist paint-
ings, including works by Renoir, Matisse, Cezanne,
and Picasso. He began publishing articles on art in
OPPORTUNITY,the official National Urban League
magazine, during the 1920s. He also contributed to
SURVEYGRAPHICand to THENEWNEGRO,the
anthology edited by ALAINLOCKE.
Bibliography
McCardele, Carl. “The Terrible Tempered Barnes.” The
Saturday Evening Post21 (March 1942).
Barnett, Claude Albert (1889–1967)
Barnett, an Illinois native who attended
TUSKEGEEINSTITUTEand who, for a time, sold
advertisements for the CHICAGO DEFENDER,
founded the ASSOCIATEDNEGROPRESSin 1919
in order to streamline the distribution of newswor-
thy information and articles to African-American
newspapers, such as the New York Amsterdam
Newsand the Chicago Defender,throughout the
United States. After World War II, Barnes pro-
vided information to a number of African newspa-
pers as well.
Bibliography
Hogan, Lawrence. A Black National News Service: The As-
sociated Negro Press and Claude Barnett, 1919–1945.
London: Associated University Presses, 1984.
Meier, August, and Elliott Rudwick, eds. The Claude
A. Barnett Papers: The Associated Negro Press,
1918–1967.Frederick, Md.: University Publica-
tions of America, 1986.
Barthé, Richmond(1901–1989)
A Chicago art institute student from 1924 through
1928 and a member of the National Academy of
Arts and Letters, Barthé is recognized as one of the
first modern artists to depict African Americans in
his sculpture and hailed as the “most talented and
prolific African American sculptor of his genera-
tion” (Wirth, 25).
Born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, he was
raised in Louisiana by parents of mixed African,
French, and Native American heritage. According
to scholar Thomas Wirth, Barthé became a house-
boy for a wealthy New Orleans family, and it was
during his residency with them that he attracted
the attention of one of his two important early
mentors. Neighbor Lyle Saxon and Barthé’s minis-
ter became enthusiastic sponsors of his work and
financed his schooling at the Art Institute of
Chicago (Wirth, 25).
Barthé moved in Harlem Renaissance circles
that included ARNA BONTEMPS,LANGSTON
HUGHES,WALLACE THURMAN,CARL VAN
VECHTEN, and ALAINLOCKE. Locke, who was a
member of the homosexual community of the pe-
riod, encouraged his friend BRUCE NUGENT to
make Barthé’s acquaintance, assuring his friend
that he “always liked” the man and “instantly
sensed his genius” (Wirth, 25). Barthé and Nugent
maintained a close friendship that may have devel-
oped into a short-lived relationship at one point.
The correspondence that they exchanged during
their decades-long relationship included some ten-
der letters. In 1978 Barthé, recalling a memorable
and early opportunity to watch Nugent perform in
a 1927 production of PORGY,wrote to say, “I love
you with the kind of love that will last forever”
(Wirth, 25).
Barthé went on to win a HARMONFOUNDA-
TIONAWARDand was a two-time recipient of the
prestigious JULIUSROSENWALD FELLOWSHIP.He
was commissioned to create what many expected
would be an inspiring and awesome bronze monu-
ment in honor of JAMESWELDONJOHNSON. The
project was derailed, however, when military needs
prompted the government to appropriate all metals
for the war effort. A number of his works are part
of the Schomburg Collection of the NEWYORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY and the collections of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
By the late 1950s, Barthé was residing in Ja-
maica, where, according to Langston Hughes, he
was living “like a feudal lord” and taking advan-
tage of the relatively inexpensive cost of maintain-
ing domestic help.Bibliography
Wirth, Thomas. Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance: Se-
lections from the Work of Richard Bruce Nugent.
Durham: Duke University Press, 2002.28 Barnett, Claude Albert