The Barnes Foundation is an educational art institution in Lower Merion Township, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. It was founded in 1922 by Albert C. Barnes, who collected art after making a fortune by co-developing an early antimicrobial drug marketed as Argyrol.

Today, the Foundation possesses more than 2500 objects, including 800 paintings estimated to be worth more than $6 billion. Among its collection are 181 paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 69 by Paul Cézanne, and 59 by Henri Matisse, as well as numerous other masters, including George de Chirico, Paul Gauguin, El Greco, Francisco Goya, Edouard Manet, Amedeo Modigliani, Jean Hugo, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Maurice Utrillo, Vincent Van Gogh, Maurice Prendergast, and a variety of African artworks. The Foundation became embroiled in controversy due to a financial crisis in the 1990s, partially related to longstanding restrictions related to its location in a residential neighborhood.

It decided to relocate the gallery from Lower Merion to a site in Philadelphia, on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, for enhanced public access in 2012. In 1922 a villa for the school was designed by Paul Cret, on the grounds of the home of Dr. Albert C.

Barnes. The grounds now are the Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation.

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