- Ellis Waterhouse
Sir Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse (
February 16 1905 —September 7 1985 ) was an Englishart historian specialized in Roman baroque and English painting. [When the August 1970 issue of "The Burlington Magazine" was dedicated as a kind of "festschrift" to Prof. Waterhouse, the editor noted that he made his most memorable contributions in the areas of the Italian Baroque and in English painting; his work on Gainsborough and Reynolds became standards. ("The Burlington Magazine" vol. 112 No. 809, "British Art in the Eighteenth Century" (August 1970), p. 487.] He was Director of theNational Galleries of Scotland (1949-52) and held the Barber chair at Birmingham University until his official retirement in 1970.Waterhouse was the son of the architect Percy Leslie Waterhouse, through whom he possessed the means to pursue a largely independent career. His fellow student at
Marlborough College wasAnthony Blunt , with whom he continued a lifelong professional friendship; he went on toNew College, Oxford . In 1927-29 he studied at Princeton University withFrank Jewett Mather and received a fellowship to studyEl Greco in Spain. [His study did not result in a monograph on El Greco.] He returned to London to take up an Assistant Keeper's post at theNational Gallery, London , under its Keepers, C. H. Collins Baker and H. Isherwood Kay.He then joined the
British School in Rome as librarian until 1936, working on the combination of connoissurship and archival material that resulted in "Roman Baroque Painting" (1937), on the strength of which he was elected a Fellow ofMagdalen College, Oxford (1938-1947) and prepared the catalog for aRoyal Academy exhibition, "17th-Century Art in Europe".World War II found him in Athens, where he rose to the rank of major, eventually with the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives branch of the Allied Military; his colonel was
Geoffrey Webb . At the liberation of Holland, he detected a recently-acquiredVermeer at the Rijksmuseum and led ultimately to the exposure of the forgerHan van Meegeren .After the war Waterhouse briefly served as editor to the "
The Burlington Magazine " where he was soon succeeded byBenedict Nicolson and began his academic career: Manchester University, 1947-48; Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (1949-52); Barber Professor of Fine Art,Birmingham University and director of itsBarber Institute of Fine Arts (1952-70): Slade professor at Oxford University (1953-55).Nikolaus Pevsner asked him to write a volume for the projected Pelican History of Art; his "Painting in Britain, 1530-1790" was its first volume.Waterhouse married Helen Thomas, an archaeologist of ancient Greece whom he had met during the war in Athens, where she was connected with the British School of Archaeology [ [http://www.brown.edu/Research/Breaking_Ground/results.php?d=1&first=Helen&last=Waterhouse Helen Thomas Waterhouse] ] in 1949; they had two daughters. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 1985. His unusually extensive personal library and annotated photograph collection were sold to help in the initial formation of the
Getty Research Institute , Los Angeles.elected publications
Much of Waterhouse's wide-ranging information is buried in brief articles, often in obscure publications. He edited "The Dictionary of 16th & 17th century British Painters" 1988 and "The Dictionary of British 18th Century Painters in Oils and Crayons" 1981; only his major books are listed here.
*"Baroque Painting in Rome: the Seventeenth Century." (London: Macmillan) 1937;
*"Reynolds." (London) 1941;
*"Titian's Diana and Actaeon. (Oxford University Press) 1952;
*"Painting in Britain, 1530-1790." (in series Pelican History of Art) (Baltimore: Penguin, then Yale University Press) 1953, rev. ed 1978; Michael Kitson contributed an introduction and brief sketch of Waterhouse's career to the 5th edition, 1994.
*"Italian Baroque Painting." (New York: Phaidon/New York Graphic Society,) 1963;
*"Three Decades of British Art, 1740-1770" (The Jayne Lectures for 1964) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) 1965;
*"Roman Baroque Painting: a List of the Principal Painters and their Works In and Around Rome." Oxford: Phaidon, 1976.Notes
External links
* [http://dictionaryofarthistorians.org/waterhousee.htm "Dictionary of Art Historians": Sir Ellis K. Waterhouse] Full entry; summary of his stature; lists obituaries.
* [http://content.cdlib.org/view;jsessionid=YdVJ3ZcPGT7XWNvY?docId=tf067n9785&chunk.id=did-1.7.1&brand=oac (Getty Research Institute) Inventory of the Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse notebooks and research files] Bibliography
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