Harold Wethey

Harold Edwin Wethey (* 1902 in Port Byron, New York, † September 22, 1984 in Ann Arbor ) was an American art historian and professor of art history. The focus of his work was the Italian art and the Baroque in Spain.

Life

Harold Edwin Wethey was born in 1902 in Port Byron, New York. His father was Charles Edwin Wethey, his mother was Flora Keck. He received his first degree in 1923 from Cornell University in Romance languages ​​. He then continued his studies at Harvard University. There he received his Master of Arts in 1931 and in 1935 his Ph.D. in art history. He wrote his dissertation on Chandler R. Post. In it dealt Harold Wethey with Gil de Siloe and his school. In 1936 he published this work in a revised version as his first book. 1934 Wethey received his first teaching position at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, where in 1936 he received an assistant professorship. 1938 Wethey was an assistant professor of art history at Washington University in St. Louis. From 1940 to 1972, Harold Wethey Professor of Art History at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Among his students were among others Victor Miesel, Marilyn Stokstad, Michael Robert Enggass and Stoughton.

During his time at the University of Michigan was Harold Wethey 1943 visiting professor at the Universidad Nacional de Tucuman, San Miguel de Tucumán. This stay was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United States. In the years 1944 and 1945 Wethey received a Rockefeller Fellowship. In 1946 he was appointed professor. Two years later he married Alice Luella Sunderland. Harold Wethey published in 1949 the book Colonial Architecture and Sculpture of Peru, which secured him the attention in professional circles. The Hispanic Society of America awarded him in 1952 the sculpture Medal for his research achievements in this field. With his book published in 1955 Alonso Cano: Painter, Sculptor, Architect Wethey became one of the most important English-speaking researchers in the field of Spanish art. This book contained a catalog of the works of Alonso Cano. Generally saw Harold Wethey in plant catalogs a core aspect of the art-historical work regarding an artist. The years 1958 and 1959 he spent thanks to the Fulbright Program in Rome. After the death of his mentor Chandler R. Post, he completed his work. So he published in 1959, the last two volumes of The History of Spanish Painting. During this time Wethey also worked on raisonné by El Greco, who in 1968 a second time, this time in Spanish, hung up. He put very strict requirements in the hands of divorce and got away with it on a in comparison to other catalogs significantly lower number of handwritten works of El Greco. He insisted also that this has become first in Italy to the artist and it would therefore have been no Cretan work phase. He defended this position, while the majority of art historians had already opened this topic. Wetheys attributions to El Greco but were generally recognized. In his last years, Harold Wethey primarily dealt with Titian, to whom he also submitted a list of works, which replaced the 1877er directory of Joseph Archer Crowe.