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'' (1951–74).

Life

Nikolaus Pevsner was born in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, Saxony, the son of Anna and her husband Hugo Pevsner, a Russian-Jewish fur merchant. He attended

St. Thomas School, Leipzig St. Thomas School, Leipzig (german: Thomasschule zu Leipzig; la, Schola Thomana Lipsiensis) is a co-educational and public boarding school in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1212 and is one of the oldest schools ...

, and went on to study at several universities,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

, and

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian dialects, Hessian: , "Franks, Frank ford (crossing), ford on the Main (river), Main"), is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as o ...

, before being awarded a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' ...

in 1924 for a thesis on the

Baroque architecture Baroque architecture is a highly decorative and theatrical style which appeared in Italy in the early 17th century and gradually spread across Europe. It was originally introduced by the Catholic Church, particularly by the Jesuits, as a means t ...

of Leipzig. In 1923, he married Carola ("Lola") Kurlbaum, the daughter of distinguished Leipzig lawyer Alfred Kurlbaum. He worked as an assistant keeper at the Dresden Gallery between 1924 and 1928. He converted from

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

early in his life. During this period he became interested in establishing the supremacy of German modernist architecture after becoming aware of Le Corbusier's Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveau at the Paris Exhibition of 1925. In 1928 he contributed the volume on

Italian baroque Italian Baroque (or ''Barocco'') is a stylistic period in Italian history and art that spanned from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. History The early 17th century marked a time of change for those of the Roman Catholic religion ...

painting to the ''Handbuch der Kunstwissenschaft'', a multi-volume series providing an overview of the history of European art. He taught at the University of Göttingen between 1929 and 1933, offering a specialist course on English art and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

According to biographers Stephen Games and Susie Harries, Pevsner welcomed many of the economic and cultural policies of the early Hitler regime. However, due to Nazi race laws he was forced to resign his lectureship at Göttingen in 1933. His first intention was to move to Italy, but after failing to find an academic post there, Pevsner moved to England in 1933, settling in Hampstead, where poet Geoffrey Grigson was his next-door neighbour in Wildwood Terrace. Pevsner's first post was an 18-month research fellowship at the University of Birmingham, found for him by friends in Birmingham and partly funded by the

Academic Assistance Council The Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA) is a charitable British organisation dedicated to assisting academics in immediate danger, those forced into exile, and many who choose to remain in their home countries despite the serious risks they face ...

. A study of the role of the designer in the industrial process, the research produced a generally critical account of design standards in Britain which he published as ''An Enquiry into Industrial Art in England'' (Cambridge University Press, 1937). He was subsequently employed as a buyer of modern textiles, glass and ceramics for the Gordon Russell furniture showrooms in London. By this time Pevsner had also completed ''Pioneers of the Modern Movement: from William Morris to Walter Gropius'', his influential pre-history of what he saw as Walter Gropius' dominance of contemporary design. ''Pioneers'' ardently championed Gropius's first two buildings (both pre–First World War) on the grounds that they summed up all the essential goals of 20th-century architecture; in England, however, it was widely taken to be the history of England's contribution to international modernism, and a manifesto for Bauhaus (i.e.

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg an ...

) modernism, which it was not. In spite of that, the book remains an important point of reference in the teaching of the history of modern design, and helped lay the foundation of Pevsner's career in England as an architectural historian. Since its first publication by Faber & Faber in 1936, it has gone through several editions and been translated into many languages. The English-language edition has also been renamed ''Pioneers of Modern Design''.

Second World War

Pevsner was " more German than the Germans" to the extent that he supported " Goebbels in his drive for 'pure' non-decadent German art". He was reported as saying of the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

(in 1933): "I want this movement to succeed. There is no alternative but chaos... There are things worse than

Hitlerism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

." Pevsner's political leanings following Hitler's appointment as Chancellor in January 1933 are clearly revealed in several extracts from his diaries and letters that Suzie Harries includes in her 2011 book ''Nikolaus Pevsner: The Life''. For example, the following observation is made by Pevsner on the boat to

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

in October 1933: "The second-class is almost entirely occupied by non-

Aryans Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ...

. Dreadful, dreadful – to think that's where I belong." Nonetheless, he was included in the Nazi Black Book as someone hostile to the Hitler regime. In 1940, Pevsner was taken to the internment camp at Huyton,

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

as an enemy alien. Geoffrey Grigson later wrote in his ''Recollections'' (1984): "When at last two hard-faced Bow Street runners arrived in the early hours of the morning to take im... I managed, clutching my pyjama trousers, to catch them up with the best parting present I could quickly think of, which was an elegant little edition, a new edition, of Shakespeare's Sonnets." Pevsner was released after three months on the intervention of, among others, Frank Pick, then Director-General of the Ministry of Information. He spent some time in the months after the Blitz clearing bomb debris, and wrote reviews and art criticism for the Ministry of Information's '' Die Zeitung'', an anti-Nazi publication for Germans living in England. He also completed for

Penguin Books 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.Pelican paperback ''An Outline of European Architecture'', which he had begun to develop while in internment. ''Outline'' would eventually go into seven editions, be translated into 16 languages, and sell more than half a million copies. In 1942, Pevsner finally secured two regular positions. From 1936 onwards he had been a frequent contributor to the '' Architectural Review'' and from 1943 to 1945 he stood in as its acting editor while the regular editor

J. M. Richards Sir James Maude Richards, FRIBA (13 August 1907 – 27 April 1992) was a British architectural writer. James Maude Richards was born in 1907, at Ladypath, Park Lane, Carshalton, Surrey. His father, Louis Saurin Richards, was a solicitor, ...

was on active service. Under the ''AR''s influence, Pevsner's approach to modern architecture became more complex and more moderate. Early signs of a lifelong interest in Victorian architecture, also influenced by the '' Architectural Review'', appeared in a series written under the pseudonym of "Peter F. R. Donner": Pevsner's "Treasure Hunts" guided readers down selected London streets, pointing out architectural treasures of the 19th century. He was also closely involved with the ''Review''s proprietor,

H. de C. Hastings Hubert de Cronin Hastings (18 July 1902 – 4 December 1986), often referred to in contemporary works as H. de C. Hastings (and known to friends as "H. de C."),D. A. C. A. Boyne, ‘Hastings, Hubert de Cronin (1902–1986)’, Oxford Dictiona ...

, in evolving the magazine's theories on

picturesque Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...

planning. In 1942, Pevsner was also appointed a part-time lecturer at Birkbeck College, London; he would eventually retire from the college in 1969 as its first Professor of Art History. He lectured at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

for almost 30 years, having been Slade Professor of Fine Art there for a record six years from 1949 to 1955, and was also the Slade Professor at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

in 1968. Framing all this was his career as a writer and editor. After moving to England, Pevsner had found that the study of architectural history had little status in academic circles, and the amount of information available, especially to travellers wanting to inform themselves about the architecture of a particular district, was limited. Invited by Allen Lane, founder of

Penguin Books 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.King Penguin series, to suggest ideas for future publications, he proposed a series of comprehensive county guides to rectify this shortcoming. Work on the '' Buildings of England'' series began in 1945, and the first volume was published in 1951. Pevsner wrote 32 of the books himself and 10 with collaborators, with a further four of the original series written by others. Since his death, work has continued on the series, which has been extended to cover the rest of the United Kingdom, under the title Pevsner Architectural Guides (now published by

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Univer ...

). After updating and correcting ''London 1: the Cities of London and Westminster'' for its reissue in 1962, Pevsner delegated the revision and expansion of further volumes to others, beginning with Enid Radcliffe for ''Essex'' (1965). The gazetteer descriptions of revised volumes do not routinely distinguish between Pevsner's original text and any new writing, but more recent books sometimes supply his words in quotation when the revising author's judgement differs, where a building has since been altered, or where the old text is no longer topical. As well as ''The Buildings of England'', Pevsner proposed the ''Pelican History of Art'' series (which began in 1953), a multi-volume survey on the model of the German ''Handbuch der Kunstwissenschaft'' (English: "Handbook of the Science of Art"), which he would himself edit. Many individual volumes are regarded as classics.

Postwar

In 1946, Pevsner made the first of several broadcasts on the BBC Third Programme, presenting nine talks in all up to 1950, examining painters and European art eras. By 1977 he had presented 78 talks for the BBC, including the Reith Lectures in 1955 – a series of six broadcasts, entitled ''The Englishness of English Art'', for which he explored the qualities of art which he regarded as particularly English, and what they said about the English national character. His A. W. Mellon lectures in Fine Art at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., were published in 1976 as ''A History of Building Types''. Pevsner was a founding member in 1957 of the Victorian Society, the national charity for the study and protection of

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

and Edwardian architecture and other arts. In 1964 he was invited to become its chairman, and steered it through its formative years, fighting alongside

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architectu ...

, Hugh Casson and others to save houses, churches, railway stations and other monuments of the Victorian age. He served for ten years (1960–70) as a member of the National Advisory Council on Art Education (or Coldstream Committee), campaigning for art history to be a compulsory element in the curriculum of art schools. He was elected a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

in 1965 and awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1967. Having assumed British citizenship in 1946, Pevsner was appointed a CBE in 1953 and was knighted in 1969 "for services to art and architecture". Pevsner also received an Honorary Doctorate from

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University ( gd, Oilthigh Heriot-Watt) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and subsequently granted uni ...

in 1975.

Death and legacy

Pevsner died at home in Wildwood Terrace, Hampstead, London, in August 1983. His wife predeceased him by 20 years. His memorial service was held at the

Church of Christ the King, Bloomsbury The Church of Christ the King belongs to Catholic Apostolic Church trustees; it is in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London. It adjoins Dr Williams's Library and is within sight of University College London. The church is used by the Anglican missio ...

, the following December, with the memorial address being given by

Alec Clifton-Taylor Alec Clifton-Taylor (2 August 1907 – 1 April 1985) was an English architectural historian, writer and TV broadcaster. Biography and works Born Alec Clifton Taylor (no hyphen), the son of Stanley Edgar Taylor, corn-merchant, and Ethel Elizab ...

, a friend of 50 years. He is buried in the churchyard of the Church of St Peter, Clyffe Pypard, in Wiltshire, where he and his wife Lola had a cottage. His elder son, Dieter, was an editor at

Tom Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

, was a film producer and director who went on to work on several James Bond films. Pevsner had many notable students including Phoebe Stanton. In 2007, a blue plaque was erected by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

at the house that had been Pevsner's home since 1936. Although Pevsner oversaw the publication of the initial volumes of the Scottish, Welsh and Irish counterparts of ''The Buildings of England'' (and in each was credited as "Editor-in-Chief", "Founding Editor" and "Editorial Adviser" respectively) he did not write any of them. As with the revisions of his earlier works, many of these volumes were the work of several contributors. Coverage of the whole of Great Britain was completed in 2016, with the Irish series still in progress. A fictionalised Pevsner appears in the 1998 novel '' The Spell'' by Alan Hollinghurst.

Notable ideas and theories

* "A bicycle shed is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture. Nearly everything that encloses space on a scale sufficient for a human being to move in is a building; the term architecture applies only to buildings designed with a view to aesthetic appeal." From ''An Outline of European Architecture'', 1943. * Pevsner also described in his ''An Outline of European Architecture'' the three ways aesthetic appeal could manifest itself in architecture: in a building's façade, the material volumes, or the interior.

Publications

*''Pioneers of the Modern Movement'' (Faber, 1936) *''An Enquiry into Industrial Art in England'' (1937) *''Academies of Art, Past and Present'' (1940) *''An Outline of European Architecture'' (1943) *''The Leaves of Southwell'' (King Penguin series), Penguin, 1945 *''Pioneers of Modern Design'' (originally published as ''Pioneers of the Modern Movement'' in 1936; 2nd edition, New York:

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...

, 1949; revised and partly rewritten,

Penguin Books 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.The Buildings of England'' series (1951–74), e.g.: ** ** ** *''The Englishness of English Art'' (1956, print edition) *''Christopher Wren, 1632–1723'' (1960; issued as part of the Universe Architecture Series) *''The Sources of Modern Architecture and Design'' (1968) *''A History of Building Types'' (1976) *''Pevsner: The Complete Broadcast Talks'' (Ashgate, 2014; published posthumously)

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

*. * * * * * * *

External links

* – see ''The History of the Series'' section for Pevsner biography
Pevsner biography – Dictionary of Art Historians

Pevsner Art Catalogue Collection – University of East Anglia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pevsner, Nikolaus 1902 births 1983 deaths 20th-century British historians Academics of Birkbeck, University of London Academics of the University of Birmingham Architecture critics British architectural historians British architecture writers British art critics British art historians Burials in Wiltshire Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy German architectural historians German art historians German male non-fiction writers German people of Russian-Jewish descent Jewish architects Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Knights Bachelor Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Penguin Books people Writers from Leipzig People educated at the St. Thomas School, Leipzig Leipzig University alumni Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal Slade Professors of Fine Art (University of Oxford)