Myron G. Barlow

Myron G. Barlow (1870 – 1937) was an American figurative painter known for his paintings of the lives of rural French women. A gold medalist in international art exhibitions, he had a home at the Etaples art colony (the colony a place in France in which American artists converged before World War 1). He was friend to Henry Ossawa Tanner. He also remained a resident of Detroit.

Myron G. Barlow was born on April 15, 1873 in Ionia, Michigan of the marriage of Adolph and Fanny Barlow. His father had been born in Breslau, Germany, immigrating to the United States in 1849 and serving in the Union Army with the 5th Michigan Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. Barlow trained at the Detroit Museum School (later the Detroit Fine Arts Academy), where he studied with Joseph W. Gies (1860–1935). He began his career as a "sketch artist" on the staff of the Detroit Free Press. He would also study at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Barlow left for Europe in 1893 to study, and, upon his arrival in France at the age of twenty-one, was noticed by William Bouguereau. In Amsterdam he discovered Johannes Vermeer while reproducing paintings at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. Another critic described his art as showing the quiet "resignation of feminine labor."

Around 1900 in France, Barlow settled in Trépied, near Étaples Possibly he had more than one Louise as a model, or one model had three names over time; Louise Perrault, Louise Grandidier and Louise Descharles were all cited as Barlow's model. Among his students was James S. Booth.

Barlow was a regular exhibitor in the Paris Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (National Society of Fine Arts), and his name was used in newspapers in the United States to denote American participation in the event. In 1907, he was the only American elected to the society. He exhibited consistently over years, and it was noted that critiques of Salon works often found time to mention his paintings.

In 1914, he was a founding member of a group in France calling themselves the American Artists Association, along with Frederick Carl Frieseke, Richard E. Miller, Myron Barlow, George Elmer Browne, Max Bohm, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Walter Griffin, John Noble, Charles Hawthorne and George Oberteuffer.

Barlow returned temporarily to the United States when the German army in World War 1 overran the area he lived in, near Belgium. For that show, he exhibited the same paintings which won him full membership in the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and they won the gold medal at the Panama-Pacific Exhibition as well.

In Detroit, he was president of the Scarab Club around 1918. Among his major accomplishments were four large murals which he painted for the main auditorium of Temple Beth-El, completed in 1925.

He is recognized for his work with gold medals at the St. Louis and Panama Pacific exhibition, and for having his works purchased by numerous international museums, including the Quentovic Museum in Étaples in France, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Detroit Institute of Arts. The Detroit Club and the private collection of Baron Edmond de Rothschild include works by Barlow.

After World War 1, he returned to France in May 1920.

Barlow lived both in Etaples and in Detroit. While his primary home was to become Etaples, he continued to interact with the Detroit community, making trips back. At the end of his life, living in Detroit, his final trip to Etaples was with the intention of selling his house there, to spend his final years in Detroit.

Connection to Breslau Jewish community Myron Barlow's grandparents emigrated from Breslau, Germany to the United States by way of Hull, bringing Myron's father Adolph with them. That community was devastated after 1933; its population shrank to 10,309 by 1939. Four murals in the Temple Beth El were dedicated in 1925 and still survive today, each measuring 8 feet 3 inches in diameter. Barlow's four paintings were painted on canvas in France and then brought to the United States by him, to be installed in the temple. They were among the first paintings to be placed in a Jewish temple as decoration.

The four paintings were written about in The Advocate in 1925. The paintings include The Patriarch in which Abraham welcomes three strangers, The Prophet in which 11 figures react to the words of a prophet, a painting of older European Jews from the middle ages teaching the young, and The Immigrant depicting an immigrant with prayer book passing the Statue of Liberty. His father's funeral services took place at the temple.

Murals in the Bethel Community Transformation Center in Detroit, painted by Myron Barlow

Honors Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. Knight of the Legion of Honor. In 1932, he was named a knight in the national order of the Legion of Honor 2

Barlow listed his honors in 1919: Six Academic Medals, Paris Gold Medal, First Class, St. Louis Exposition, 1904 Gold Medal, First Class, San Francisco Exposition, 1914 Hors Concours [special status, no longer has to compete to get paintings entered], Paris Salon of Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts Member of the Paris Jury for Panama-Pacific Exposition Member of the Jury in Paris for the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Exhibition Societaire [full member] Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts Salon, Paris Member Paris Society of American Painters Member Societe Internationale des Peintres et Sculpteurs, Paris Member Societe Internationale des Beaux Arts et des Lettres, Paris Member American Art Association, Paris Member Philadelphia Art Club

Salon entries 1901 Fisher Girl Mending Nets (actually an entry to the Society of Oil Painters, London) Listed as one of the Americans with paintings in the Salon 1904 Entry 82 Grand-père (Grandfather) 1907 was the year he was elected to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He gained full membership in 1912. 1906 Les curieuse (The Curious) and Consolation maternelle (Maternal Consolation) 1907 Entry 57 Le dévidage and entry (58) Tasse de café 1908 Entry 56. Hospitalité, entry 57 La bergère bleue, entry 58 La visite, entry 59 La lettre 1909 "[unnamed] dreamy studies of Normandy women in gray blues and mauves" 1910 "[unnamed] delicate genre studies" 1911 1912 The Choice, The Toilette , A Girl Reading The Choice, By the Fire Le Crochet Old Shawls, Winding, A Sad Novel Tales of Picardy 1922 Sans Nouvelles

Titles of other works These may or may not have been at the Paris Salon 1901 The Fisherman's Daughter, displayed at the Chicago Art Institute 1907 at the Detroit Museum of Art: Maternal Consolations, Curios, On the Dunes, Moonrise, Bringing Home the Cows, Snowballs, Burning Weeds

Works in public collections France Étaples, Quentovic Museum (in French), Louise belle femme (Louise beautiful woman), oil on canvas Collections of the Pas-de-Calais Department Council Laundress Portrait of an Etaples Seaman Art in the Bethel Community Transformation Center 2 of 4 3 of 4 Portrait of Albert Kahn, designer of the Bethel-El Synagogue Myron Barlow's signature is on the painting's bottom. 4 of 4