- William George Constable
William George Constable (born
Derby ,England ,27 October 1887 , diedCambridge, Massachusetts ,3 February 1976 , was an art historian and gallery director.Education
Distantly related to the landscape painter
John Constable , William George Constable was educated atDerby School , where his father was headmaster, andSt John's College, Cambridge , where he read history, law and economics. In 1909, he was awarded the Whewell Scholarship for International Law. After gaining a First in economics in 1910, he was awarded the McMahon Law Studentship by St John's for four years, then entered theInner Temple and was called to the Bar in May, 1914.War Service
During the
First World War , Constable served in theSherwood Foresters for two years, but he suffered severeshell shock when a shell exploded in a trench a few feet from him, burying him alive. He then spent a long period in a nursing home while recovering.Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge
While convalescing, Constable reworked and resubmitted an existing thesis to St John's and was elected a Fellow of the College, a position he held from January 1919 to the end of 1921.
Art career
From 1921, Constable attended the
Slade School of Art in London, worked at theWallace Collection . In 1923, he joined the National Gallery, where he stayed for eight years, the last two as assistant director, and became an art critic for theNew Statesman and the Saturday Review. In 1931, he moved to the newly formedCourtauld Institute of Art at theUniversity of London , having been recruited as its first Director byArthur Lee, 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham . In 1935, he succeededRoger Fry as Slade Professor of Fine Art at theUniversity of Cambridge , while continuing as Director of the Courtauld. In 1937, he resigned both positions and in 1938 left England to become Curator of theBoston Museum of Fine Arts . He remained in theUnited States until his death in 1976.Marriage
Constable married Olivia Roberts in 1926.
elected publications
*"John Flaxman 1755-1826" (University of London Press, 1927)
*"Art History and Connoisseurship" (1938)
*"The Painter's Workshop" (Oxford University Press, 1954)
*"Richard Wilson" (Routledge & Paul, London, 1953)
*"Art Collecting in the United States of America: an Outline of a History" (Nelson, London, 1964)
*"Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697-1768" (2 vols., Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1962)References
*"G. W. Constable" by J.G. Links in "Burlington Magazine" no. 118 (May 1976)
*Terisio Pignatti in "Arte Veneta 30" (1976) 277-278
*"Dictionary of National Biography, 1971-1980", pp.171-2
* [http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0275%2FConstable Papers of William George Constable]
* [http://www.dse.unifi.it/marshall/tullberg.htm Art and Economics in Cambridge]
* [http://www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/constablew.htm William George Constable at dictionaryofarthistorians.org]
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