Barthé was born, in 1901, in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and lived there till he was 18 years old. He then moved to New Orleans where he won a blue ribbon for a drawing he sent in to the County Fair. Barthé, with less than a high school education and no formal training in art, was admitted to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1924 with the help of Reverend Harry Kane S.S.I.

For three full years Barthé learned to paint, until his forth year he started to use clay to gain a better understanding of the third dimension in his painting. This transition proved to be a turning point in his career. He exhibited two busts in the Negro History Week Exhibition and in the April 1928 annual exhibition of the Chicago Art League. He received much admiration from the critics and numerous commissions.

Following his graduation from The Art Institute of Chicago in 1929, Barthé moved to New York and established his first studio in Harlem. During the next two decades, he built his reputation as a sculptor. By 1934, his reputation was so well established that he was awarded his first solo show at the Caz Delbo Galleries, New York City.

The ever-growing violence forced yet another move. For the next five years he lived in Switzerland, Spain, and Italy before eventually settling in Pasadena, California, where he worked on his memoirs and most importantly, editioned many of his works with the financial assistance of the actor, James Garner, until his death.

Barthé experienced success after success and was considered by writers and critics as one of the leading "moderns" of his time. Eventually, the tense environment and violence of the city began to take its toll, and he decided to abandon his life of fame and move to Jamaica, West Indies. His career flourished in Jamaica and he remained there until the mid-1960's.

Notable public works that Barth created include his Toussaint L'Ouverture Monument and General Dessalines Monument, both in front of the Palace, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Green Pastures: Walls of Jericho for the Harlem River Housing Project; and Rose McClendon for Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater House.

Richmond Barthé received many honors during his career, including the Rosenwald Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and membership in the National Academy of Arts and Letters. His work is also in public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of Art, New York; and The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois.