Wolfgang Stechow

Wolfgang Stechow (born June 5, 1896 in Kiel , † October 12, 1974 in Princeton , New Jersey) was a German-American art historian .

Live and act

As the son of the Prussian public prosecutor Waldemar Stechow and his wife, the concert singer Bertha Deutschmann, he attended high school in Göttingen until 1913 and then volunteered as a war volunteer in 1914.

In Russia he was imprisoned in a Siberian camp for two years in 1915. He wrote his dissertation on the Apocalypse by Dürer at the Georg-August University in Göttingen . From 1921 to 1922 he held an assistant position in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum under Wilhelm von Bode .

In The Hague he was an assistant to Cornelis Hofstede de Groot from 1922 to 1924 . He then moved to the Art History Department of the University of Göttingen in 1923. There he was appointed private lecturer in 1926 after his habilitation on Dutch art, and from 1931 he was appointed associate professor. During these years he was a member of the German Institute for Art History in Florence from 1927 to 1928 . In 1931 he was visiting professor at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome .

On December 16, 1932, he married Ursula Hoff (* 1911). The marriage produced three children (Hans Axel, Barbara and Nicola).

After the transfer of power to the National Socialists , he had to give up his position in Göttingen in 1936 as a citizen of Protestant faith with Jewish ancestors. So he emigrated to the USA, where he got an assistant position at the University of Wisconsin in Madison (Wisconsin) through the mediation of Oskar Hagen . In 1940 he went to Oberlin College , where he stayed until his retirement in 1963. He had taken US citizenship in 1942. In 1969 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

Positions after his retirement:

1963 to 1964: Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan ,
1966 to 1967: Robert Sterling Clark Professor of Art at Williams College ,
1969: William Allan Neilson Chair of Research at Smith College
1969 to 1970: Mary Conover Mellon Professor at Vassar College ,
1971 to 1972: Visiting Professor at Yale University ,
1972: Distinguished Visiting Professor at Oberlin College,
1973: Honorary Curator at the Allen Art Museum .

During the summer semesters, he also taught at New York University and Middlebury College . He has authored over 200 published papers and several monographs.

Honors and Appointments

1964: Doctor of Humane Letters (LHD) at the University of Michigan
1967: Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Oberlin College
1973: Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Baldwin-Wallace College
1974: Award of the Art Dealers Association of America for excellence in 1975
1975: the Allen Memorial Art Museum names a museum room after him
Director and Vice President of the College Art Association of America
Administrator of the American Society for Aesthetics
Member of the National Committee on the History of Art
Member of the advisory committee of the Renaissance Society of America
Member of the Advisory Committee on German Language at Princeton University
Member of the Fulbright Selection Committee
Member of the Archeological Institute of America

Fonts (selection)

Apollo and Daphne. In: Studies of the Warburg Library Volume 23, Leipzig 1932
Rembrandt's depictions of the Emmaus meal. In: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte , 3 vol., H. 6 (1934), pp. 329–341 ( beginning of article )
Salomon van Ruysdael: an introduction to his art: with a critical catalog of the paintings , Berlin 1938
Masters of Art: Bruegel. In: (Masters of Art Series)
Pieter Bruegel, the Elder (about 1525-1569)
Dutch Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century , London 1966
European and American Paintings and Sculpture in the Allen Memorial Art Museum , Oberlin College
Catalog of Drawings and Watercolors in the Allen Memorial Art Museum , Oberlin College
European Paintings Before 1500 , Cleveland Museum of Art Catalog of Paintings, 1974 ISBN 0-910386-19-6
Northern Renaissance art, 1400-1600 - Sources and documents , New Jersey 1966
Dürer in America: His Graphic Work , New York 1971

literature

Karl Arndt : Obituary for Wolfgang Stechow. In: Göttinger Tageblatt , No. 258 of November 5, 1974.
John Walsh Jr .: Wolfgang Stechow (1896–1974). In: The Burlington Magazine , Vol. 118, No. 885 (Dec., 1976), pp. 855-856.
Ulrike Wendland: Biographical handbook of German-speaking art historians in exile. Life and work of the scientists persecuted and expelled under National Socialism. Part 2: L – Z. Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-11339-0 , pp. 652-659.

credentials

Individual evidence

↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 232.

personal data
SURNAME	Stechow, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German-American art historian
DATE OF BIRTH	June 5, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kiel
DATE OF DEATH	October 12, 1974
Place of death	Princeton , New Jersey, USA

[1] Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 232.