Peter Thornton (art historian)
Peter Kai Thornton (born April 8, 1925 in St Albans , Hertfordshire , England , † February 8, 2007 in Isleworth , Middlesex , England) was an English art historian , museum curator and author .
Life
Thornton attended Bryanston School in Blandford Forum in the English county of Dorset before he went to the De Havilland Aeronautical Technical School in Hertfordshire in 1942 , which is now part of the University of Hertfordshire . He did his military service in the Army Intelligence Corps from 1945 in Austria and from 1948 studied German and Danish at Trinity Hall at Cambridge University . While at college, he volunteered as an overseer at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and then went to the National Art Collections Fund , now The Art Fund .
Thornton was the furniture and woodwork specialist at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London from 1966 to 1984 and then from 1984 to 1995 curator at Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London.
Thornton's radical approach to depicting historical interiors in houses like Ham House , Osterley Park and Apsley House made him famous, as did his books on interior decoration in various European countries from the 15th century onwards.
Thornton was married twice. He married Ann Helps in 1950 and has three daughters. In 2002 he married Lora Spindler.
honors and awards
- 1997: Commander of the Order of the British Empire .
Publications
- 1978: Seventeenth Century Interior Decoration in England, France and Holland . New edition 1990: Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, ISBN 0-300-02193-3 .
- 1981: with Maurice Tomlin: The Furnishing and Decoration of Ham House . Furniture Historic Society, London.
- 1984: Authentic Décor: The Domestic Interior 1620–1920 .
- 1985: German: Interior architecture in three centuries: the home furnishings based on contemporary evidence from 1620 to 1920 , Busse Seewald, Herford, ISBN 3-512-00728-7 .
- 1989: Form and Decoration: Innovation in the Decorative Arts 1470-1870 . Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, ISBN 0-297-83228-X .
- 1991: The Italian Renaissance Interiors 1400-1600 . HN Abrams, New York City, USA, ISBN 0-810934590 .
Web links
- Obituary in The Guardian of March 12, 2007
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Thornton, Peter |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Thornton, Peter Kai |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English art historian, museum curator and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 8, 1925 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St Albans , Hertfordshire , England |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 8, 2007 |
| Place of death | Isleworth , Middlesex , England |