Booker T. Washington (Primary Title)
bust (Object Name)
Richmond Barthé, American, 1901 - 1989 (Artist)
Born to Creole parents in Mississippi, Richmond Barthé studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, emerging as a leading figure of the so-called New Negro Movement, or the Harlem Renaissance, of the 1920s. An important early encounter with Alain Locke – author of the 1925 anthology The New Negro: An Interpretation, which inspired the flourishing cultural movement – coupled with a grant from the Chicago-based Rosenwald Foundation, allowed Barthé to relocate to Manhattan in 1929.
This striking bust of Virginia-born Booker T. Washington, famed political leader, educator, and proponent of black self-help, belongs to Barthé’s 1928 portrait series of eminent African Americans, as does the nearby image of Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the first black poets to achieve national acclaim. (Other works in the series depict artist Henry Ossawa Tanner and historical political leader Toussaint L’Ouverture.) The Washington and Dunbar busts may have been featured in an exhibition of “American Negro Artists,” sponsored by the Harmon Foundation. Established in 1922, the foundation was the first to support and promote the work of African American artists through juried exhibitions.
Some object records are not complete and do not reflect VMFA's full and current knowledge. VMFA makes routine updates as records are reviewed and enhanced.
