Margaret Dickens Whinney (4 February 1897 – 1975) was an English

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 ...

who taught at the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

. Her published works included books on British sculpture and architecture.

Life

Whinney was the daughter of

Thomas Bostock Whinney Thomas Bostock Whinney (1860 – 7 May 1926) FRIBA was an English architect based in London who became the chief architect of the Midland Bank. History He was born in 1860, the son of Frederick Whinney of Regent's Park Road, London. He was ed ...

, an architect, and Sydney Margaret Dickens, the granddaughter of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

. She was educated at the University of London, graduating in art history in 1935. She had published her first article in 1930, under the supervision of her mentor

Tancred Borenius Carl Tancred Borenius (14 July 1885, Vyborg – 2 September 1948, Coombe Bisset) was a Finnish art historian working in England, who became the first professor of the history of art at University College London. He was a prolific author, and recog ...

. Immediately after graduating she joined the staff of the recently established Courtauld Institute, where she did a variety of jobs including managing the slide library, and also continued her studies. The Courtauld closed for a year following the beginning of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. When it reopened in 1940, Whinney was effectively in sole charge, both teaching and handling most of the administrative duties. That year, the research she had done on 17th-century drawings for

Whitehall Palace The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. Hen ...

and for

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

, in the collection at

Chatsworth House Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, north-east of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the House of Cavendish, Cavendish family sin ...

, was accepted for a D. Litt. at the University of London and published in 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 ...

yearbook. She continued to work at the Courtauld after the war, first under the directorship of T. S. R. Boase, and then of

Anthony Blunt Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), styled Sir Anthony Blunt KCVO from 1956 to November 1979, was a leading British art historian and Soviet spy. Blunt was professor of art history at the University of London, dire ...

. Blunt described her lecturing style as "supremely lucid" Whinney was made a Reader in 1950. In the same year she edited a guide to public art collections in the United Kingdom jointly with Blunt. In 1957 she and

Oliver Millar Sir Oliver Nicholas Millar (26 April 1923 – 10 May 2007) was a British art historian. He was an expert on 17th-century British painting, and a leading authority on Anthony van Dyck in particular. He served in the Royal Household for 41 year ...

co-wrote the volume on the period from 1625 to 1714 for the Oxford History of English Art, Whinney contributing the sections on architecture. Then, commissioned by

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

, she wrote the volume on ''British Sculpture from the Renaissance to the Nineteenth Century'' for the

Pelican History of Art Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.John Flaxman John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several yea ...

's models at

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

, and a book on early Flemish painting. In 1971 she published an introductory volume on

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

. She was a vice president of the Society of Antiquaries, secretary and editor to the Walpole Society, a trustee of

Sir John Soane's Museum Sir John Soane's Museum is a house museum, located next to Lincoln's Inn Fields in Holborn, London, which was formerly the home of neo-classical architect, John Soane. It holds many drawings and architectural models of Soane's projects, and ...

and a member of the Advisory Council of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

Honours

In 1967, Whinney was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...

(FBA).

Publications

* ''The Nation's Pictures: a Guide to the Chief National and Municipal Picture Galleries of England, Scotland and Wales'' (with Anthony Blunt, 1950). * ''English Art, 1625–1714'' (with Oliver Millar, 1957), as part of the "Oxford History of English Art" . * ''Sculpture in Britain, 1530–1830'' (1964), as part of the "

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whinney, Margaret English art historians 1897 births 1975 deaths People from Hammersmith Women art historians British women academics Fellows of the British Academy British women historians Academics of the Courtauld Institute of Art