Benjamin Rowland

Benjamin Rowland (born December 2, 1904 in Overbrook , Pennsylvania, † October 3, 1972 in Cambridge , Massachusetts) was an American art historian specializing in art from South Asia. He was a professor at Harvard University .

Rowland graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in 1928 and a PhD in art history with Chandler Rathfon Post 1930. The subject of the dissertation, which was published in 1932, was the Catalan painter Jaume Huguet . From 1930 he was a tutor at Harvard and turned to Asian art, for which he learned Japanese and Chinese. In 1932/33 he went on a study trip to Tokyo and Kyoto, Beijing and India (New Delhi) and in 1936/37 to India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Ceylon to study Buddhist wall paintings. His investigation of the Hellenistic-Roman influence on Buddhist sculptures (see Gandhara ) established his reputation as an art historian. In 1941 he became an associate professor at Harvard and in 1950 professor as successor to Langdon Warner , from 1960 as Gleason Professor of Fine Arts . During World War II he was an intelligence officer in the US Navy in Washington DC. In addition to his professorship, he was curator of the Asian collection at the Fogg Art Museum . He lectured not only on his specialty in Eastern India, but also on American art, for example. In 1955 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

He painted watercolors, which he also exhibited publicly in various galleries. He collected South Asian art and bequeathed the collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

He was friends with the curator of Indian art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Ananda Coomaraswamy , who introduced him to Indian art in the early 1930s.

Fonts

• Central Asia, Art of the World , Holle Verlag 1970
• The Wall-Paintings of India, Central Asia & Ceylon. A Comparative Study, Boston: Merrymount Press 1938 (preface Coomaraswamy)
• The Art and Architecture of India: Buddhist, Hindu, Jain. Pelican History of Art, Penguin Books 1953
• Art in East and West: an introduction through comparisons, Harvard University Press 1954
• The Classical Tradition in Western Art, Harvard University Press, 1963
• Huguet: A Study of Late Gothic Painting in Catalonia. Harvard University Press, 1932

Web links

• Dictionary of Art Historians