Alexander Joseph Finberg (April 23, 1866 – March 15, 1939) was an art historian focused on the History of British Art who was a founder of the

Walpole Society The Walpole Society, named after Horace Walpole, was founded in 1911 to promote the study of the history of British art and artists. From 1762 on, Walpole had published the first history of art in Britain, based on the manuscript notebooks of G ...

and an expert on J. M. W. Turner. Finberg was educated at City of London College, King's College London and the Lambeth School of Art. In 1905, Finberg was commissioned to catalogue and organise the paintings in the Turner Bequest. His work rediscovered numerous previously unknown Turner canvases which led to

Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen (14 October 1869 – 25 May 1939), known as Sir Joseph Duveen, Baronet, between 1927 and 1933, was a British art dealer who was considered one of the most influential art dealers of all time. Life and career Jos ...

to build a new wing devoted to Turner at the

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

. His resulting publication of the ''Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest'' in 1909 is still widely used by contemporary scholars and students. In 1911 he co-founded the

Bibliography

* ''Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest (1909)'' * ''The development of British landscape painting in water-colours (1918)'' * ''The History of Turner's Liber Studiorum. With a new catalogue raisonn (1924)'' * ''The Life of J M W Turner, RA'' (1939)

References

1866 births 1939 deaths English art historians Burials at Barnes Cemetery {{UK-hist-stub