Ellis Waterhouse
Sir Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse | |
---|---|
Born | 16 February 1905 |
Died | 7 September 1985 | (aged 80)
Education | Marlborough College |
Alma mater | |
Occupation | Art historian |
Partner | Helen Waterhouse |
Parent | Percy Leslie Waterhouse |
Sir Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse (16 February 1905 – 7 September 1985) was an English
Early life and career
Waterhouse was born in
He then joined the
We was holidaying in Athens when WWII broke out. He stayed in Greece, working as a cartographer for the British military attaché.[5] He was then commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in Cairo.[2] In September 1944 Waterhouse was selected for service with the British MFAA by Monuments Man Lt. Col. Geoffrey Webb, MFAA Director for the British Zone.
Waterhouse was among the first Monuments Men to investigate Holland, inspecting churches, museums and monuments. While looking at the restitution of stolen painting, he realised that a painting acquired by the Boymans Museum in Rotterdam – Supper at Emmaus, attributed to
Academic career
After the war, Waterhouse briefly served as editor to
In 1970, Waterhouse became the Director of the newly established Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.[7] On taking up the post he brought with him his extensive archive of annotated photographs and associated documentation of British art which were formally donated to the Centre on Waterhouse's death in 1985. The material includes a series of general English sale catalogues running from 1896 to 1940 (formerly belonging to William Roberts[8]); Waterhouse's annotated copy of Graves and Cronin's catalogue of Reynolds paintings and a large collection of annotated photographs of British paintings.[9]
He was knighted in 1975. His reaction was ' I was surprised, slightly amused, but on the whole not displeased.' [10]
In recalling his friendship of over 40 years with Ellis Waterhouse, Cecil Gould stated that he was 'a most remarkable man, with a ringing, sardonic, slightly nasal voice, with a mischievous glint behind the spectacles, exquisite handwriting, underlying kindness, accessibility to young scholars and open handed willingness to share his results with them and an astonishing industry which continued almost to the day of his death.[10]
Photographs by Sir Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse are held at the Conway Library in the Courtauld, London, and are being digitised.[11]
Personal life
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[12] in 1949; they had two daughters.
In 1937, Waterhouse commissioned the modernist house Overshot built by Samuel and Harding of the Tecton Group in Oxford. It was his family home to which he returned between foreign assignments.[13]
He died at home, 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.
Selected 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. (London: Phaidon Press Ltd) 1962;
- 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).
- Paintings from Venice for seventeenth century England: some records of a forgotten transaction, Italian Studies, vol vii (1952)[14]
Notes
- ^ When the August 1970 issue of The Burlington Magazine was dedicated as a kind of festschrift to 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.
- ^ a b "Waterhouse & Son – Epsom & Ewell History Explorer".
- ^ His study did not result in a monograph on El Greco.
- ^ "Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse Archive - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ "Waterhouse, Maj. Sir Ellis K. | Monuments Men Foundation". MonumentsMenFdn. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ a b "Waterhouse, Maj. Sir Ellis K. | Monuments Men and Women | Monuments Men Foundation".
- ISBN 9780300175714.
- ^ "William Roberts Archive, Paul Mellon Centre". Archived from the original on 6 February 2021.
- ^ "Ellis Waterhouse | Archive Collections". Paul Mellon Centre. Yale University. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020.
- ^ a b http://publications.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/72p525.pdf[permanent dead link] [bare URL PDF]
- ^ "Who made the Conway Library?". 30 June 2020. Archived from the original on 3 July 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ Helen Thomas Waterhouse
- ^ "Overshot". The Modern House.
- .
External links
- Dictionary of Art Historians: "Waterhouse, Ellis K[irkham], Sir"; full entry; summary of his stature; lists obituaries.
- (Getty Research Institute) "Inventory of the Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse notebooks and research files, 1801-1987, bulk ca. 1924-ca. 1979", Online Archive of California
- "Ellis Waterhouse | Archive Collections" at Paul Mellon Centre, Yale University; material concerning British art