Ralph Barton
| Ralph Barton | |
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Ralph Barton in 1926
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| Born |
August 14, 1891 Kansas City, Missouri |
| Died | May 19, 1931 (aged 39) New York City, New York |
| Occupation | Artist |
| Spouse(s) | Marie Jennings Anne Minnerly Carlotta Monterey Germaine Tailleferre |
| Children | Two daughters; Natalie, Diana |
Ralph Barton (August 14, 1891 – May 19, 1931) was an American artist best known for his cartoons and caricatures of actors and other celebrities. Though his work was heavily in demand through the 1920s and is often considered to epitomize the era, his personal life was troubled by mental illness, and he was nearly forgotten soon after his suicide, shortly before his fortieth birthday.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Barton was the youngest of four children born to Abraham Pool and Catherine Barton. His father was an attorney by profession, but around the time of Ralph's birth made a career change to publish journals on metaphysics. His mother, an accomplished portrait painter, ran an art studio. The young Barton showed his mother's aptitude for art, and by the time he was in his mid-teens he had already seen several of his cartoons and illustrations published in The Kansas City Star and the Kansas City Journal-Post. Buoyed by this success, in 1908 Ralph Barton dropped out of Kansas City's Westport High School before graduating. He moved to Chicago in 1909 to attend the Art Institute of Chicago, but soon found he didn't "like Chicago or Chicago people and worst of all the art institute. I could learn twice as much at work" he confided in a letter to his mother. Returning to Kansas City within a matter of months, he married his first of four wives, Marie Jennings.
While back in Kansas City Barton resumed his work for the Star and Journal-Post to support his wife and daughter, born in 1910. His first break, or national exposure, came in 1912 when Barton sold an illustration to the humor magazine Puck. Encouraged, the Bartons moved to New York City where Ralph found steady work with Puck, McCall's and other publications. His wife was not happy with life in the Big Apple however, and returned to Kansas City within a few months. Barton rented studio space, which he shared with another famous Missouri artist, Thomas Hart Benton, and the two became fast friends. It was Benton in fact who served as the subject of Barton's first caricature.
In 1915 Puck magazine sent Barton to France to sketch scenes of World War I. It was then that Barton developed a great love of all things French, and throughout his life he would return to Paris to live for periods of time. In 1927 the French government awarded Barton the Legion of Honour
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