Pioneering US collector Albert Barnes turned down both of Van Gogh's 'Starry Nights'

"The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia is well known for its Van Gogh collection, with an enviable seven pictures. It now has among the largest holdings of Van Goghs in the US-after those at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Art Institute of Chicago. But Albert Barnes, the first American to buy a Van Gogh, also passed up very unusual opportunities to acquire the "Starry Night" paintings. Van Gogh made two famous nocturnal scenes: Starry Night over the Rhône (September 1888), now at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and the even more powerful Starry Night (June 1889), at New York's Museum of Modern Art."

"Two years earlier, in 1923, the New York-based writer and agent Frank Washburn Freund had written to Barnes, enquiring if he might be interested in "one of Van Gogh's finest and most important landscape paintings", Starry Night over the Rhône (September 1888). Washburn Freund explained that he could "offer this painting at a reasonable figure". Although the picture was "still in Europe", he "could have it sent over for your inspection". Barnes failed to pursue the offer, possibly because he was concerned that building his planned educational institution might leave him short of funds. Starry Night over the Rhône instead went to the Paris industrialist Fernand Moch and eventually ended up in the Musée d'Orsay, where it is among the museum's main attractions."

The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia holds seven Van Gogh paintings and ranks among the largest Van Gogh collections in the United States after the Met, the National Gallery of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. Albert Barnes became the first American to buy a Van Gogh and assembled a major Post-Impressionist collection after making his wealth in the pharmaceutical industry. In 1923 Frank Washburn Freund offered Starry Night over the Rhône to Barnes, who did not pursue the purchase; the painting went to Fernand Moch and later to the Musée d'Orsay. In 1936 the Van Wisselingh gallery in Amsterdam wrote to Barnes about the other nocturnal Starry Night, and Barnes ultimately did not acquire that painting. Barnes opened an educational institution in 1925 where he displayed his collection.

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