Biographie du biologiste et collectionneur Alfred C. Barnes (1872-1951) -homme excentrique marqué par les idées de John Dewey et de Bertrand Russell- qui créa la fondation éponyme de Merion, dans la banlieue de Philadelphie, où l'on peut voir les oeuvres de Soutine, Matisse, Renoir et Cézanne. Sa fortune venait de la découverte de deux médicaments, l'argyrol et l'ovoferrin. Le marchand parisien Paul Guillaume joua un rôle essentiel dans la constitution de sa collection.

"After taking a medical degree, he did not become a practising physician, but continued his studies in chemistry. With a German associate, he marketed an antiseptic drug used in treating infections of the eye and throat. Known as Argyrol, it gained wide use and made Barnes a millionaire twenty times over.

"But money alone died not satisfy him. He became a pionneer collector of modern French paintings, establishing the famed Barnes Foundation in Pennsylvannia to house his collection of nearly a thousands works. Delighting in controversy, he fought memorable verbal battles on a variety of subjects with Harold Stassen, Bertrand Russell, the University of Pennsylvannia, The Saturday Evenening Post, and dozens of other individual and institutions. His passionate friendship for the Negro people, his advocacy of the New Deal, and his policy of excluding the public -especially celebrities- from the Barnes Foundation, added greatly to the number of his ennemies."