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10B-SEA COAST ECHO-MARCH 24, 1977
Dr. Richmond Barth<
UR. BARTHE
Richmond Barthe of Jamaica, West Indies, a former native son of Bay St. Louis was home over the weekend visiting with his sister Mrs. Douglas Williams, wife of the Bay Police Chief and also visited with his other sister, Edna Wright.
The son of a widowed seamstress, Dr. Barthe started out in Bay St. Louis as a yard boy doing odd jobs. It was his mother?s custom when he was but a small child of 14 months to give him paper and pencils with which he started .-?.r.wing and his life in the tu-M o; art begt.n to unfold.
A: the age of 16, the Harry S. Pond fafnily of New Orleans, v. i'l- ;!iinr,HTod at Bay St. f.t'ii!.-;. employed him as a butier. Mrs. Pond gave him his first oil paint set as a Christmas gift. Later, the first exhibit of his paintings were at a church festival in New Orleans and featured his life-size painting of the head of
Christ. Father Harry Cane of the Blessed Sacrament Parish was so impressed that he helped Barthe attend the Chicago Art Institute. While attending the institute, he * | studied under Charles i Schroeder a renown artist in his own right. He attended the school for four years, but he did not graduate because he refused to take courses that were in commercial art. As it turned out that was one of the smarter things he could have ever done for himself.
His first real attempt at vs doing a sculpture was in 1928 ^ when he modeled the heads of - two friends which were put on exhibition in Chicago at a showing of THE NEGRO IN ART.
Although he never went above the second grade in schools in Bay St. Louis he holds two honorary art degrees. He also holds the Audubon Artist Medal of Honor and numerous other honors and citations from the National Academy of Arts and Letters. He is listed in Who?s Who in Mississippi; Who?s Who in American Art; Who?s Who in America; the World Catholic Who?s Who; Who?s Who in Jamaica, and Who?s Who in the Western Hemisphere. His works in collections can be found in the Whitney Museum, Oberlin College Museum, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum, St. Augustines Seminary, Bay St. Louis, and many others across the United States and Jamaica.
Dr. Richmond Barthe is one of the foremost sculptors in
the interpenetration of th< Negro. Like most sculptors he puts Michaelangelo firs and Mestrovich as second a: the greatest sculptors wh< ever lived.
Some 13 years ago Dr Barthe was honored in Bay St Louis with keys to city fron then mayor John A. Scafide ii recognition of his ac complishments in the field o art.
Once again he was beinf honored by the people o Mississippi - when on Thur