Horst Woldemar Janson (October 4, 1913 – September 30, 1982), was a Russian Empire-born German-American professor of
art history
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
best known for his ''History of Art'', which was first published in 1962 and has since sold more than four million copies in fifteen languages.
Early life and education
Janson was born in
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
in 1913 to Friedrich Janson (1875–1927) and Helene Porsch (Janson) (1879–1974), a Lutheran family of
Baltic German
Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...
stock. After the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...
, the family moved to Finland and then
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
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, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
, where Janson attended the
Wilhelms Gymnasium (graduated 1932).
After his German
Abitur, Janson studied at the
University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...
and then at the art history program at the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...
, where he was a student of
Erwin Panofsky
Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892 in Hannover – March 14, 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a German-Jewish art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime.
Panofsky's work represents a high ...
. In 1935, at the suggestion of Panofsky, who had emigrated to the United States,
Alfred Barr
Alfred Hamilton Barr Jr. (January 28, 1902 – August 15, 1981) was an American art historian and the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. From that position, he was one of the most influential forces in the development of ...
sponsored Janson as an immigrant, and he completed a PhD at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1942 (his dissertation was on
Michelozzo). He taught at the
Worcester Art Museum
The Worcester Art Museum, also known by its acronym WAM, houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. WAM opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and ranks among th ...
(1936–38) and the
University of Iowa School of Art and Art History
The University of Iowa School of Art and Art History is a top 10 public art school in the US. The school is part of the University of Iowa located in Iowa City, IA which awards undergraduate and graduate degrees in Art and Art history. The gradu ...
(1938–41) while pursuing his degree. In 1941 he married
Dora Jane Heineberg (1916–2002), an art history student at
Radcliffe College who later collaborated with him as co-author, and he became a citizen in 1943.
Academic career
Janson taught at the
St. Louis School of Fine Arts
The St. Louis School of Fine Arts was founded as the Saint Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts in 1879 as part of Washington University in St. Louis, and has continuously offered visual arts and sculpture education since then. Its purpose-buil ...
at
Washington University
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
from 1941 until 1948, where he also took charge of a renewal of the University Art Gallery collection (now known as the
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is an art museum located on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, within the university's Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Founded in 1881 as the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts, it ...
). Janson's plan to sell popular canvases such as
Frederic Remington
Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 – December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United Stat ...
's ''A Dash for the Timber'' at the New York galleries of the
Kende family drew comment from the local paper, wondering why St. Louisans had not been given preference. Janson sold 120 artworks, retained 80, and acquired 40 works by European modernists through the Kende Galleries:
Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented ...
,
Juan Gris
José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...
,
Theo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg (, 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practiced painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. He was married to artist, pianist and choreographer Nell ...
.
Janson left in 1948 to join the faculty of
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
, where he developed the undergraduate arts department and taught at the graduate
Institute of Fine Arts
The Institute of Fine Arts (IFA) of New York University is dedicated to graduate teaching and advanced research in the history of art, archaeology and the conservation and technology of works of art. It offers Master of Arts and Doctor of Philos ...
. Also in 1948 he was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship. He was recognized with an honorary degree in 1981, and died on a train between
Zurich and
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
in 1982 at the age of 68.
He wrote about
Renaissance art
Renaissance art (1350 – 1620 AD) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occ ...
and nineteenth-century
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...
, and authored two prize-winning books, ''Apes and Ape Lore in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance'' (1952) and ''Sculpture of Donatello'' (1957). In his later years he was concerned with East–West dialogue in the arts. Over his career, Janson consulted on the ''
Time–Life
Time Life, with sister subsidiaries StarVista Live and Lifestyle Products Group, a holding of Direct Holdings Global LLC, is an American production company and direct marketer conglomerate, that is known for selling books, music, video/DVD, ...
Library of Art''; was president of the
College Art Association
The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their underst ...
, editor of the ''
Art Bulletin
The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...
'', and founding member and President of the
Renaissance Society of America
The Renaissance Society of America (RSA) is an academic association founded in 1954 supporting the study of the Renaissance period, 1300–1650. The RSA brings together scholars from many backgrounds in a wide variety of disciplines from North A ...
. He also wrote books on art for young people, some in collaboration with his wife.
Janson's signature contribution to the discipline of art history, specifically to the teaching of art history, is his survey text entitled simply ''History of Art,'' which was first published in 1962 and has since become the standard by which current art history textbooks are measured.
Feminist critiques
Despite or perhaps because of the influence of ''History of Art'', it came under increased scrutiny by art historians, who sought a more inclusive story of Western art. According to feminist art historians
Norma Broude
Norma Broude (born 1 May 1941) is an American art historian and scholar of feminism and 19th-century French and Italian painting. She is also a Professor Emerita of art history from American University. Broude, with Mary Garrard, is an early lead ...
and
Mary Garrard
Mary DuBose Garrard (born 1937) is an American art historian and emerita professor at American University. She is recognized as "one of the founders of feminist art theory" and is particularly known for her work on the Baroque painter Artemisia ...
: "Women artists in the 1950s and 1960s suffered professional isolation not only from one another, but also from their own history, in an era when women artists of the past had been virtually written out of the history of art, H.W. Janson's influential textbook, ''History of Art'', first published in 1962, contained neither the name nor the work of a single woman artist. In thus excluding women from the history of art (...)."
Janson's rejection of female artists has marred his reputation as an art historian, because his books paint only a half picture, omitting any art not done by men. His refusal to acknowledge women extends to the celebrated artist
Idelle Weber
Idelle Lois Weber (born Tessie Pasternack; March 12, 1932 – March 23, 2020) was an American artist most closely aligned with the Pop art and Photorealist movements.
Early life
Weber was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 12, 1932 as Tessie Pa ...
. Sam Hunter, then curator at MoMA, introduced her to Janson, who admired Weber's work but stated that he did not include women painters in his books. The updated editions of his ''History of Art'', made by his son, Anthony F. Janson, have included several women artists from different eras.
[H. W. Janson, Anthony F. Janson, ''History of Art: The Western Tradition'', New Jersey, Pearson Education, 6th edition, 2004]
References and sources
;References
;Sources
*
* Frederik Ohles, Shirley M. Ohles, and John G. Ramsay, ''Biographical Dictionary of Modern American Educators'' (Greenwood Press, 1997: ), pp. 179–80.
*
Elizabeth Sears and Charlotte Schoell-Glass, "An Émigré Art Historian and America: H. W. Janson", ''The Art Bulletin'', Vol. 95, No. 2 (June 2013), pp. 219–242.
External links
Dictionary of Art Historians: Janson, H(orst) W(oldemar)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Janson, H. W.
American art historians
Harvard University alumni
New York University faculty
Writers from Hamburg
1913 births
1982 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century American male writers
People educated at the Wilhelm-Gymnasium (Hamburg)
American male non-fiction writers
White Russian emigrants to Germany
German emigrants to the United States
Baltic German people from the Russian Empire