Tom P. Barnett

Tom P. Barnett, well-known St. Louis architect and artist, once said, “I do not believe it is possible to do anything original in architecture and yet, I do believe that a man can build his own individuality into his work, even though he builds through the traditions of other ages"  (Western Architect, July 1913, 60). Barnett was a respected architect, and while he was always engaged with the arts, he turned his attention toward painting later in life. Reflecting his training in the historicist Beaux-Arts tradition, Barnett’s work occupied a middle ground between reverence for historical styles and individual expression.

Like many architects of his generation, Barnett learned the art of building by apprenticing with an experienced architect: his father, George I. Barnett. The elder Barnett had been key in the development of St. Louis, having immigrated from London in the 1830s. He was particularly adept at perspective drawing, a skill that was not common among architects at the time. The knowledge of not only how to design a building, but also represent it pictorially, would be passed on to the younger Barnett when he entered his father’s practice in 1900. With his father’s firm, Barnett had a hand in designing some of St. Louis’ most beloved structures, including the Hotel Jefferson (1904), Temple Israel Synagogue (1907), the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis (1912), and the elaborate Beaux-Arts gates that mark the entrance to the private residential neighborhood, Kingsbury Place (1902).

At the age of 34, Barnett became the youngest member of the World’s Fair Commission. He is credited with designing the Palace of Liberal Arts at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, one of his first major projects, for which he was awarded a gold medal for architecture. In 1912, Barnett left his father’s practice to establish his own office, the T.P. Barnett Company. In his independent practice, Barnett continued in the Beaux-Arts style of his father, embarking on a European tour in 1914 to study the architecture of England and France. He went on to design several other notable structures, such as the Busch Mausoleum in Bellefontaine Cemetery (1915), and the Arcade Building, St. Louis (1919).

Throughout the early 1900s, painting became an increasingly important facet of Barnett’s creative work. Between 1919 and 1927, the painter put on six solo exhibitions that demonstrated his growing body of work. Barnett primarily executed landscapes in oil, which were noted for their impressionistic quality and vibrant use of color. He was particularly fond of winter scenes, coaxing a wide spectrum of color out of the whites and grays typically associated with the season. Barnett was highly active in the St. Louis Artists’ Guild. He regularly participated in their group shows, and also sponsored an annual 50-dollar prize for best landscape painting, intended for an artist who had not previously won a guild prize.

One of Barnett’s most remarkable works as a painter is his mural, “Riches of the Mines,” which resides in the Missouri State Capitol. This work put Barnett in the company of some of the state’s most noteworthy artists, such as Frank Nuderscher, Thomas Hart Benton, and Oscar Berninghaus, who also completed murals for the Capitol. The lunette depicts a lead mine in southwest Missouri, with rising smokestacks, sluices, and mounds of chat. As with his winter landscapes, Barnett was able to draw remarkable beauty out of a subject typically regarded as bleak and dreary. Emily Grant Hutchings of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, a champion of the Capitol’s mural program, called the painting “dramatic, with strong masses and splendid color,” (Ball and Priddy, 194)  and noted Barnett’s masterful depiction of water, painted with the same shimmering vibrancy as can be found in his landscapes.

By the end of his life, Barnett was known equally for his paintings as for his buildings. He died on September 23, 1929 in Boston. In his obituary, he was remembered for the joy that he found in his work: “While at work he reveled in the enjoyment he could give others, leading an ideal life and having the most lovable personality” (St. Louis Globe Democrat, September 30, 1929).