Richmond Barthe

The Harmon Foundation, a philanthropic organization based in New York City and active from 1922 to 1967, included this portrait in its exhibition “Portraits of Outstanding Americans of Negro Origin.” To demonstrate its goal of social equality and document noteworthy African Americans’ contributions to the country, the foundation had sought portraits from an African American artist, Laura Wheeler Waring, and a Euro-American artist, Betsy Graves Reyneau. The exhibition toured the country for ten years. By 1946, sculptor Richmond Barthé was very well-known in New York City. Reyneau depicted him in his studio with a figure of Jesus Christ titled Come Unto Me. When he completed the work in 1947, Barthé donated it to St. Jude’s Church in Montgomery, Alabama.