George Stout

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George Leslie Stout (born October 5, 1897 in Winterset , Iowa , † July 1, 1978 in Santa Clara , California ) was an American art treasure specialist and museum director who founded the first laboratory in the United States to deal with art conservation and art conservation. - restoration workers. He was also the founder of the first restoration magazine, the Myron Stout Journal , published from 1950 to 1967.

During World War II , he was a member of the Department of Monuments, Art and Archives (MFAA) , a unit of the US Army dedicated to the recovery of stolen art .

Life

Stout was born in Winterset, Iowa. He studied at Grinnell College for two years and served in a US military hospital during World War I. After the war he completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Iowa and taught painting in the art department there for a few years. He then traveled through Europe. In 1924 he married Margaret Hayes, with whom he had two sons Robert and Thomas.

In 1926, Stout began work on his Masters degree from Harvard University . He graduated in 1929 and began his museum career in the art department of the Fogg Art Museum , where he worked as a lecturer and restorer . Together with Harvard chemist John Gettens Rutherford , Stout did pioneering work in three important areas of conservation : preserving the existing, reducing signs of age and soiling, and repairing damage. This helped bring conservation to the world of modern science. He became head of the conservation department at the Fogg Art Museum in 1933, a position he held until 1947.

As a reservist in the Navy , Stout had been in active service since 1943 and shortly afterwards he joined the Twelfth Army Group . Because of his background in art history, he was one of the first to be recruited for the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section (MFAA) . The group was tasked with protecting and documenting damage to European cultural monuments during World War II, as well as researching, locating, genesis and repatriation of art that had been looted by the Nazis.

During his time in Europe from 1944 to 1945, he oversaw the inventory and return of several thousand works of art from salt mines, churches and other hidden depots, and was appointed deputy commander of the MFAA. According to the official Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945 recommended Stout and his co-founder Laurence Sickman the establishment of a MFAA department in Tokyo . As a result, the Department of Art and Monuments of the Department of Civil and Education was established and subordinated to the Commander in Chief for the Allied Powers in Japan. Stout was the head of the division from around August 1945 to mid-1946.

After the war, Stout directed the Worcester Art Museum in Worcester , Massachusetts from 1947 to 1954 , and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston , Massachusetts from 1955 to 1970 . Stout was instrumental in founding the International Institute for Conservation (IIC), was its first president from 1950 to 1953 and served its council until 1963. Stout became an honorary member of the IIC in 1966.

In 1954, Stout was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1975 he was made an honorary member of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works for his achievements.

Stout died at the age of 80 in Santa Clara , California .

legacy

At the end of the Second World War he worked for the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section in Europe. The activity of this unit is portrayed in the film Monuments Men, shot in 2014 . Actor George Clooney played the fictional character Frank Stokes, which is based on the person of Stouts.

Awards

Selection of decorations, sorted based on the Order of Precedence of Military Awards :

Selected publications

  • International Congress of Art History, Stout, GL & Fogg Art Museum: Technical Studies in the Field of the Fine Arts. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels 1930.
  • RJ Gettens, GL Stout: Painting Materials, A Short Encyclopedia. D. Van Nostrand Co., New York 1947.
  • GL Stout, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Treasures from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Crown Publishers, New York 1969.
  • GL Stout: The Care of Pictures . Dover Publications, New York 1975, ISBN 0-486-23165-8 .

See also

supporting documents

  1. ^ Myron Stout Journal, published 1950-1967
  2. ↑ GL Stout, 80, Expert on Restoring Art . In: The Washington Post . July 6, 1978, p. C8 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e A Finding Aid to the George Leslie Stout Papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, accessed October 10, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Michael Swanger: Iowan played key role in saving war treasures. In: Iowa History Journal. July / August 2013.
  5. ^ The Art Army: Harvard's Monuments Men at War. In: Harvard Magazine. January / February 2010.
  6. ↑ a b Rihoko Ueno: Monuments Men in Japan: Discoveries in the George Leslie Stout papers. In: Archives of American Art Blog. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, accessed October 10, 2013 .
  7. ^ Oral history interview with George Leslie Stout, 1978 Mar. 10-21. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
  8. ↑ International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
  9. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter S. (PDF; 1.4 MB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved July 1, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Clements L. Robertson (September 5, 1975) , Citation for George L. Stout as Honorary Member of AIC, American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
  11. ^ State of California. California Death Index, 1940-1997 . Sacramento, CA, USA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics.
  12. ↑ House votes to award medals to 'Monuments Men,' Jack Nicklaus. Retrieved July 6, 2014 .
  13. ^ Technical Studies in the Field of the Fine Arts . ISSN  0096-9346 , OCLC 1590172 .
  14. ^ George L. Stout: Painting materials: a short encyclopaedia . Dover Publications, New York 1966, ISBN 0-486-21597-0 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Stout, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stout, George Leslie (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American art protection specialist and museum director
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Winterset , Iowa
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1978
Place of death Santa Clara , California