Henry Thode (13 January 1857 – 19 November 1920) was a German

art historian 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 ...

. He was born in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

and died in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Biography

He was an art historian at the time of the Weimar republic. He wrote against the prevailing ideas of the time that art from outside of Germany, such as French Impressionism was superior to traditional academic or native art. Thode believed that great German art should illustrate technical skill, realism and the German spirit. He also felt that art should be understood by all, not just academics and the bourgeois. Thode wrote a great deal about how the modern art of the Impressionists attempted to both destroy 'true' German art and the 'true' German spirit. His philosophies were very important in the formulation of the cultural policies of the Third Reich, especially in terms of 'degenerate' art. His wife was Daniela von Bülow, first daughter of

Hans von Bülow Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow (8 January 1830 – 12 February 1894) was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for es ...

and

Cosima Liszt Francesca Gaetana Cosima Wagner ( née Liszt; 24 December 1837 – 1 April 1930) was the daughter of the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt and Franco-German romantic author Marie d'Agoult. She became the second wife of the German com ...

References

* Clinefelter, J.L. (2005), ''Artists for the Reich'', New York: Berg Press.

External links

Biography
1857 births 1920 deaths Writers from Dresden German art historians People from the Kingdom of Saxony German male non-fiction writers {{germany-art-historian-stub