John House

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John Peter Humphry House (* 19th April 1945 ; † 7. February 2012 ) was a British art historian and university professor , who as an internationally recognized expert in the field of Impressionism was, and most recently since his retirement in 2010, Walter Annenberg - Professor at the Courtauld Institute of Kind of held. In his publications on Impressionism, House showed their representatives as keen observers of social change and witty participants in artistic gatherings and institutions rather than as a self-contained movement. In addition to his prominent role in reorienting academic studies of painting during the period, House also shaped public awareness through the notable art exhibitions of which he was the curator .

Life

Studies and first teaching activities at the UEA and the UCL

House was a son of Humphry House , who taught as professor of literary history at the University of Oxford and was particularly concerned with the works of Charles Dickens and Gerard Manley Hopkins . The literary scholar George Steiner described Humphry House as "a man of gloomy integrity and Vulcan self-discipline whose strengths did not include serenity," and who probably influenced his son more than he would allow, although Steiner believed that "gloom" was not one of the epithets of the Son counted.

After attending Westminster School , he studied Classical Philology at the New College of the University of Oxford and was the best in his class. He then completed postgraduate studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London with a Master of Arts (MA) with honors and, like many young scholars of his generation, was employed as a lecturer at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in 1969, despite the lack of a doctorate . Together with Eric Fernie and Peter Lasko , he was one of the representatives of a new generation of university professors who renewed teaching methods through greater student participation.

After seven years of teaching, he earned a Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.) in 1976 with a dissertation on the French painter Claude Monet , the doctoral thesis forming the basis for the book Monet: Nature into Art , published in 1986 . He then became a lecturer at University College London (UCL).

Professor and Curator at the Courtauld Institute of Art

In 1980 he took over a professorship at the Courtauld Institute of Art, whose director Peter Lasko had recently become. In the following years he devoted himself not only to teaching but also to research on the French sculptor Gislebertus , who was active in Burgundy in the 12th century, and was also temporarily deputy director of the institute.

He was particularly passionate about the institute's picture gallery with its extensive collection of works from Impressionism and Post-Impressionism . In 1994 he was the curator of an exhibition that brought together the institute's works with other paintings that were once owned by the institute's founder , Samuel Courtauld . The essay on Courtauld's patronage published by House in the exhibition catalog also contained a succinct comparison between the legacy of this textile magnate and that of Albert C. Barnes , the far more authoritarian benefactor of the Barnes Foundation in Pennsylvania . In the essay, House stated:

“Courtauld, on the other hand, was unequivocally linked to public work. All of his acts of generosity made something possible, not mandatory ... and no restrictions were placed on teaching at the institute when it was founded. As part of the University of London , it was part of the state higher education system from the start. "
'Courtauld, by contrast, was unequivocally committed to the public domain. All of his acts of generosity were enabling, not prescriptive ... and no restrictions were placed on the teaching of the institute at its foundation. As part of the University of London, it was from the start a part of the state higher educational system. '

He wrote next to his teaching a large number of technical papers, for example for 1891 incurred poplars series ( Les Peupliers ) by Monet and books such as the standard work Impressionism: Paint and Politics. Making, Marketing, Meaning (2004).

After his retirement in 2010, House continued to be associated with the Courtauld Institute of Art, taking on the professorship named after the US diplomat , publisher and patron of the arts Walter Annenberg.

Curator of major art exhibitions

House was an internationally recognized specialist in the field of impressionism, both as a university teacher and as an exhibition curator. As the value of Impressionist paintings rose sharply, he answered questions about them with exemplary integrity, thus resisting the lure of the commercial art world.

As a curator and consultant, he has participated in many important international art exhibitions, such as the Pierre-Auguste Renoir - retrospective , which from 1985 to 1986 in Boston , London and Paris was shown.

One of the most unusual of his exhibitions, Landscapes of France: Impressionism and Its Rivals , which was on display in London and Boston from 1995 to 1996, rehabilitated the academic landscape painting that the Impressionists had so successfully challenged and demonstrated that they were also works of great conviction and their own right to exist.

In his work he tried tirelessly to change stereotypical ways of looking at impressionism and, for example, in his essay on the catalog of the exhibition Monet in the 20th Century shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1999, he freed Monet from the modernist cliché that later water lily pictures were was a kind of proto- abstract expressionism . He showed that Monet's Grandes Décorations in the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris invite a comparison between the landscape paintings that were so popular in the 19th century , but also illustrate his preference for the Impressionist way of seeing.

One of the last major exhibitions was the thematic exhibition Impressionists By the Sea , which was shown in two US museums after London from 2007 to 2008.

Publications

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Claude Monet, Les Peupliers on the Christie's homepage
  2. ^ The Royal Academy Puts on a New, Fresher Face . In: New York Times, April 21, 1999
  3. ↑ Impressionists By the Sea ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the homepage of the Royal Academy of Arts  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.royalacademy.org.uk
personal data
SURNAME House, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES House, Peter Humphry (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British art historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1945
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 2012