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Richmond Barthé

Born, 1901 in St. Louis, Mississippi, USA. Died, 1989

Richmond Barthé was one of a number of artists included in Great Negroes Past and Present, an iconic publication, by Russell L. Adams, first published in 1963. The book was a bold attempt to bring to a general readership something of the majestic history African Americans and others of African origin had played in the building of, and history of, the US. The brief biographical sketches were of outstanding Africans and Africans who made distinguished contributions to history, to science and industry, to fine arts, to education and religion, and to the performing arts. The biographical sketches were accompanied by illustrations by Eugene Winslow. Numerous personalities were represented in Great Negroes Past and Present, and section XII was dedicated to VISUAL ART, and introduced its readers to artists such as Charles White, Robert Duncanson, Edward M. Bannister, Horace Pippin, Richard H. Hunt, and Jacob Lawrence.

Each artist was represented by a one page outline included a text, and a portrait rendering of them.

Richmond Barthé’s 1945 clay bust of Booker T. Washington (1856 - 1915) was reproduced in the International Review of African American Art, Volume 8 Number 2, in the article A Legacy of La Amistad | Some Twentieth Century Black Leaders, written by Clifton H. Johnson. Elsewhere in the issue were photographs of two other pieces of the sculptor’s work.

Mary McLeod Bethune, bronze
Paul Robeson as Othello, bronze

Richmond Barthé’s work was included in the exhibition Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance, which toured to galleries in the UK and the USA in 1997 and 1998.