This first biography of Dr. Albert C. Barnes was serialized on the front page of thePhiladelphia Inquirer when it appeared in 1960. In it, arts journalist William Schack interviewed dozens of people who knew the famously pugnacious art collector as he assembled his world-famous collection outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Schack traces the life of Albert Coombs Barnes (1872-1951), from childhood to his student days in Germany where he met the chemist with whom he developed Argyrol, a medication that made Barnes rich and allowed him to become an art collector. After applying for a charter to establish his collection as a public educational institution, Barnes established a highly erratic policy of admission and battled dozens of people and institutions regarding access to it. Art and Argyrol is written in the journalistic style of a bygone era yet retains its fascination for anyone interested in the history of this astounding collection and in Barnes himself. “William Schack, research chemist, journalist and art writer, has done the first full-scale study of Dr. Barnes, NOT an ‘authorized’ biography... this is a remarkable book about a remarkable Philadelphian” — The Philadelphia Inquirer “[Dr. Albert C. Barnes] is an important, as well as a colorful, figure and [...] Art and Argyrol — the first full-length biography of Barnes — is of considerable interest.” — Max Kozloff, Commentary Magazine

Biography of Dr. Barnes, one of the most colorful, bizarre, and visionary figure in the American art world in the last century.

“Money, pretension, horrid behavior by cultured people” (New York) —John Anderson’s tale delivers it all in fabulously juicy detail. This is the story of how a fabled art foundation—the greatest collection of impressionist and postimpressionist art in America, including 69 Cézannes, 60 Matisses, and 44 Picassos, among many priceless others—came to be, and how more than a decade of legal squabbling brought it to the brink of collapse and to a move that many believe betrayed the wishes of the founder, Dr. Albert C. Barnes (1872—1951). Art Held Hostage is now updated with a new epilogue by the author covering the current state of this international treasure and the endless battle over its fate.

The classic work by internationally acclaimed Cézanne scholar John Rewald In Cézanne and America, John Rewald presents a full account of how Paul Cézanne’s reputation and influence became established in America between 1891 and 1921, and of how some of the world’s largest collections of his works were formed in the United States. This is the fascinating story of enthusiastic young American artists who took up Cézanne’s cause after they discovered him in Paris. It is also the story of the discerning early American collectors of his work—Leo and Gertrude Stein, the Havemeyers, and John Quinn, among others—many of whom made their first purchases from Cézanne’s wily dealer Ambroise Vollard in Paris, or from the dealer Alfred Stieglitz in New York, and of the beginning of the famous collection of Dr. Albert C. Barnes. Each chapter is illustrated not only with Cézanne’s works but also with portraits of collectors and critics and with previously unpublished pages from diaries, dealers’ ledgers, and Cézanne’s own correspondence.