(Editor’s note: in 1878
Frank Hyde introduced Sargent to the incredible beautiful
model named Rosina Ferrara who would be featured in many of Sargent’s
paintings of that time
"Head
of Ana-Capri Girl" ,
"Rosina",and
"Capri" to name just a
few.
George Randolph Barse
would marry this beauty in 1891 and they would have a love affair like
none other. After 43 years, George lost her upon her death and he never
recovered.
What
Michele Lener found and sent word has capped a collective search for
this story that has been going on for the past four years)
[New
York Times; Feb 26, 1938, p.30]
GEORGE R. BARSE,
ARTIST, ENDS LIFE
Painter, Whose Works Hang in Many
Museums, Dies of Auto Fumes at Katonah
Katonah, N.Y., Feb. 25.—George R.
Barse, artist, whose pictures hang in many museums, was found dead on
his forty-acre estate here today. He had committed suicide by inhaling
monoxide fumes from the engine of his automobile after sealing his
garage with rags, according to Medical Examiner Amos O. Squire. Mr.
Barse, who was 76 years old, left a note saying he had done his work
and wanted to go to sleep.
The body
was found by Mr. Barse’s adopted daughter, Mrs. Maria Bernardo, with
whom he lived. According to the Bedford town Police, both the body and
the engine were cold when discovered and, since he was last seen at 3
P.M. Thursday, it was believed he ended his life that afternoon. The
note left for Mrs. Bernardo said he hoped the public would consider his
death an accident.
Mr. Barse
was born in Detroit on July 31, 1961, the son of George R. and Susan
Peironnet Barse. He attended the public schools of Kansas City, MO. In
1879 he went to Paris, where for the next six years he student at the
Ecole des Beaux Arts, the Académie Julien and the ateliers of
Jules Lefebvre, Boulanger and A. Cabanel.
He won the
Academy Prize in Paris in 1882, the New England Prize at Boston in
1885, the first prize of the National Academy of Design, 1895; the Shaw
Fund prize of the Society of American Artists in 1898 and the medal of
Buffalo Exposition in 1901.
Besides
eight panels he did for the Library of Congress, his paintings, mostly
of an allegorical nature, hang in museums at the Pittsburgh, Syracuse,
St. Louis, Providence, the University of Kansas and Louisville, KY.,
where he held his last exhibition in 1936.
During the
World War Mr. Barse painted several posters to aid the sale of Liberty
Loan bonds. One, widely circulated here and in Canada depicted a small
boy with the scales of justice in his hands, supplicating the United
States to come to the aid of a battered woman, who was Belgium.
For the last thirty-four years Mr.
Barse had lived here. He was a member of the Century Club of New York
City, The National Academy of Design, the Society of American Artists,
the Academy Arts and Letters and the Salmagundi Club.
In 1891 he
married Miss Rose Ferrara of Rome, Italy, on the Island of Capri, which
he visited annually for a months painting for many years. Mrs. Barse
died in 1934. He survived by five sisters and a brother
