The Slade Professorship of Fine Art is the oldest professorship of

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

and

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 ...

at the universities of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

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 ...

and

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

History

The chairs were founded concurrently in 1869 by a bequest from the art collector and philanthropist

Felix Slade Felix Joseph Slade (6 August 1788 – 29 March 1868) was an English lawyer and collector of glass, books and prints. A fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (1866) and a philanthropist who endowed three Slade Professorships of Fine Art at the ...

, with studentships also created 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 = ...

. The studentships allowed for the creation of the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

, now part of

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

, whose Director holds the Slade Professorship. They are normally therefore a practising artist. The chair at Oxford is a visiting professorship, with duties restricted to a series of eight public lectures per year, on the "History, Theory, and Practice of the Fine Arts", to which four seminars have been added from 2011. The professorship is associated with All Souls College, Oxford. The bequest was also indirectly responsible for the foundation of the

Ruskin School of Drawing The Ruskin School of Art, known as the Ruskin, is an art school at the University of Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division. History The Ruskin grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later became ...

in Oxford, which was financed by the first Oxford professor,

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

, who announced his intention in his inaugural lecture "to the general dismay of his listeners". The Cambridge Lectures are also a series of eight public lectures by a visiting professor. The Oxford and Cambridge professors are most often art historians or critics, but some artists have held the posts, especially at Oxford. The lectures are often subsequently published in book version.

Slade Professors, University College, London

Edward Poynter Sir Edward John Poynter, 1st Baronet (20 March 183626 July 1919) was an English painter, designer, and draughtsman, who served as President of the Royal Academy. Life Poynter was the son of architect Ambrose Poynter. He was born in Paris, F ...

(1871) * Alphonse Legros (1876) * Fred Brown (1882) *

Henry Tonks Henry Tonks, FRCS (9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a caricaturist. He became an influential art teacher. He was one of the first British arti ...

(1918) *

Randolph Schwabe Randolph Schwabe (9 May 1885 – 19 September 1948) was a British draughtsman, painter and etcher who was the Slade Professor of Fine Art at University College London from 1930 until his death. He served as a war artist in both World Wars, crea ...

(1930) *

William Coldstream Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (28 February 1908 – 18 February 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher. Biography Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of co ...

(1949) *

Lawrence Gowing Sir Lawrence Burnett Gowing (21 April 1918 – 5 February 1991) was an English artist, writer, curator and teacher. Initially recognised as a portrait and landscape painter, he quickly rose to prominence as an art educator, writer, and eventuall ...

(1975) *

Patrick George Patrick Herbert George (28 July 1923 – 23 April 2016) was an English painter who taught at the Slade School of Fine Art in London for most of his career. He was best known for his landscapes but also painted a number of portraits, including one ...

(1985) * Bernard Cohen (1988) * John Aiken (2000–12) * Susan Alexis Collins (2013–18) ''Source:''

Slade Professors, Cambridge University

Matthew Digby Wyatt Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (28 July 1820 – 21 May 1877) was a British architect and art historian who became Secretary of the Great Exhibition, Surveyor of the East India Company and the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Camb ...

(1869) *

Sidney Colvin Sir Sidney Colvin (18 June 1845 – 11 May 1927) was a British curator and literary and art critic, part of the illustrious Anglo-Indian Colvin family. He is primarily remembered for his friendship with Robert Louis Stevenson. Family and early ...

(1873) *

John Henry Middleton John Henry Middleton (5 October 1846 – 10 June 1896) was an archaeologist and a museum director. Early years He was born in York on 5 October 1846, John Henry Middleton was the only surviving child of John Middleton and Maria Margaret, daug ...

(1886) * Charles Waldstein (1895) *

William Martin Conway William Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington (12 April 1856 – 19 April 1937), known between 1895 and 1931 as Sir Martin Conway, was an English art critic, politician, cartographer and mountaineer, who made expeditions in Europe as wel ...

(1901) * Charles Waldstein (1904) *

Edward Schroeder Prior Edward Schroeder Prior (1852–1932) was an architect, instrumental in establishing the arts and crafts movement. He was one of the foremost theorists of the second generation of the movement, writing extensively on architecture, art, craftsma ...

(1912) *

Roger Fry Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developme ...

(1933) *

William George Constable William George Constable (born Derby, England, 27 October 1887, died Cambridge, Massachusetts, 3 February 1976, was an art historian and gallery director. He was the father of Medieval Historian Giles Constable. Education Distantly related t ...

(1935) * Geoffrey Fairbank Webb (1938–41, 1946–49) *

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 ...

(1949) * Alan Clutton-Brock (1955) *

Jean Bony Jean Victor Edmond Paul Marie Bony (born in Le Mans, France, 1 November 1908 – died in Brisbane, Australia, 7 July 1995) was a French medieval architectural historian specialising in Gothic architecture. He was Slade Professor of Fine Art at th ...

(1958) *

Ernst Gombrich Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich (; ; 30 March 1909 – 3 November 2001) was an Austrian-born art historian who, after settling in England in 1936, became a naturalised British citizen in 1947 and spent most of his working life in the United Kin ...

(1961) * Michael Vincent Levey (1963) *

John Pope-Hennessy Sir John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy (13 December 1913 – 31 October 1994), was a British art historian. Pope-Hennessy was Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1967 and 1973, and Director of the British Museum between 1974 and 1976. ...

(1964) * Anthony Blunt (1965) * John Summerson (1966) *

Anita Brookner Anita Brookner (16 July 1928 – 10 March 2016) was an English novelist and art historian. She was Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge from 1967 to 1968 and was the first woman to hold this visiting professorship. She ...

(1967) *

Otto Demus Otto Demus (born St. Pölten, Austria, 1902; died Vienna, 17 November 1990) was an Austrian art historian and Byzantinist. He is considered a member of the Vienna School of Art History. Between 1921 and 1928, Demus studied art history at the Uni ...

(1968) * James Sloss Ackerman (1969) *

Rudolf Wittkower Rudolf Wittkower (22 June 1901 – 11 October 1971) was a British art historian specializing in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, who spent much of his career in London, but was educated in Germany, and later moved to the Unite ...

(1970) *

George Heard Hamilton George Heard Hamilton (1910 – March 29, 2004) was an American art historian, educator, and curator. Hamilton taught art history at Yale University and Williams College, as well as acting as Director of the Yale University Art Gallery and the ...

(1971) *

Carl Nordenfalk Carl Nordenfalk (December 13, 1907 – June 13, 1992) was a Swedish art historian, academic and director of the Swedish Nationalmuseum from 1958 to 1968. He is best known for his work on Late Antique illuminations, especially those linked to the ...

(1972) * Tilmann Buddensieg (1973) * Ernst Kitzinger (1974) *

William Watson William, Willie, Bill or Billy Watson may refer to: Entertainment * William Watson (songwriter) (1794–1840), English concert hall singer and songwriter * William Watson (poet) (1858–1935), English poet * Billy Watson (actor) (1923–2022), A ...

(1975) * Harold John Golding (1976) * Howard Burns (1977) *

Rupert Bruce-Mitford Rupert Leo Scott Bruce-Mitford, FBA, FSA (14 June 1914 – 10 March 1994) was a British archaeologist and scholar, best known for his multi-volume publication on the Sutton Hoo ship burial. He was a noted academic as the Slade Professor of F ...

(1978) *

Joseph Rykwert Joseph Rykwert CBE (born 1926) is Paul Philippe Cret Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, and one of the foremost architectural historians and critics of his generation. He has spent most of his working life in th ...

(1979) *

Jennifer Montagu Jennifer Iris Rachel Montagu (born 20 March 1931) is a British art historian with emphasis in the study of Italian Baroque sculpture. Early life Montagu is a daughter of Ewen Montagu, a British judge, writer and Naval intelligence officer. She ...

(1980) * Gerhard Schmidt (1981) * Theodore Franklin Reff (1982) * Donovan Michael Sullivan (1983) * Jan Bialostocki (1984) * David Mackenzie Wilson (1985) *

Pierre Rosenberg Pierre Max Rosenberg (born 13 April 1936) is a French art historian, curator, and professor. Rosenberg is the honorary president a director of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, and since 1995, he has held the 23rd seat of the Académie Française. H ...

(1986) *

Martin Kemp Martin John Kemp (born 10 October 1961) is an English musician and actor, best known as the bassist in the new wave band Spandau Ballet and for his role as Steve Owen in ''EastEnders''. He is the younger brother of Gary Kemp, who is also ...

(1987) * Lindsay Errington (1988) *

Richard Cork Richard Cork (born 25 March 1947) is a British art historian, editor, critic, broadcaster and exhibition curator. He has been an art critic for the ''Evening Standard'', '' The Listener'', ''The Times'' and the ''New Statesman''. Cork was also ...

(1989) * William Henry Toulmin Vaughan (1990) * Lothar Ledderose (1992) * Marjorie Elizabeth Cropper (1992) *

Neil Levine Neil Levine is an American music industry executive. He is best known as the founder of the hip-hop label Penalty Recordings, and is currently the CEO of its successor company, Penalty Entertainment. Levine helped to launch the careers of artist ...

(1994) * Irene Winter (1996) *

Thomas Alexander Heslop Thomas Alexander "Sandy" Heslop, (born August 1949), publishing as T. A. Heslop, is a British academic who specialises in the art and architecture of medieval England. He is Professor of Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia (UEA). He was S ...

(1997) * Virginia Margaret Spate (1998) * Albert Blankert (1999) * Patricia Fortini Brown (2000) * Joseph Leo Koerner (2002) * William J. R. Curtis (2003) * Jerome Feldman (2004) * Ian Christie (2005) * Robert Harrist (2006) *

Griselda Pollock Griselda Frances Sinclair Pollock''The International Who's Who of Women''; 3rd ed.; ed. Elizabeth Sleeman, Europa Publications, 2002, p. 453 (born 11 March 1949) is an art historian and cultural analyst of international, postcolonial feminist stud ...

(2007) *

Robert Hillenbrand Robert Hillenbrand Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (born 2 August 1941) is a British art historian who specialises in Persian art, Persian and Islamic art. He is a professorial fellow of the universities of University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh a ...

(2008) * Tim Barringer (2009) *

Barry Bergdoll Barry Bergdoll is Meyer Schapiro Professor of art history in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University and from 2007 to 2019 a curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, ...

(2010) * Paul Crossley (2011) * Gülru Necipoğlu (2012–13) *

Jessica Rawson Dame Jessica Mary Rawson, (born 20 January 1943) is an English art historian, curator and sinologist. She is also an academic administrator, specialising in Chinese art. After many years at the British Museum, she was Warden (head) of Merton C ...

(2013–14) * Mary Miller (2014–15) *

John Ellis Bowlt John Ellis Bowlt (born 1943) is an English art historian specialising in Russian avant garde art of 1900-1930. He is a professor at the University of Southern California and directs its Institute of Modern Russian Culture. In 2009, Bowlt receive ...

(2015–16) *

David Freedberg David Freedberg is Pierre Matisse Professor of the History of Art and Director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University. He was also Director of the Warburg Institute at the University of London from July 2 ...

(2016–17) *

Stephen Bann Stephen Bann CBE, FBA (born 1 August 1942 in Manchester, England) is the Emeritus Professor of History of Art at the University of Bristol. He attended Winchester College and King's College, Cambridge, attaining his PhD in 1967. He was subs ...

(2017–18) * Jennifer L. Roberts (2018–19) *

Nicholas Penny Sir Nicholas Beaver Penny (born 21 December 1949) is a British art historian. From 2008 to 2015 he was director of the National Gallery in London. Early life Penny was educated at Shrewsbury School before he studied English at St Catharine ...

(2019–20) ''Source:''

Slade Professors, Oxford University

(1869–1878) *

William Blake Richmond Sir William Blake Richmond KCB, , PPRBSA (29 November 184211 February 1921) was a British painter, sculptor and a designer of stained glass and mosaic. He is best known for his portrait work and decorative mosaics in St Paul's Cathedral in ...

(1879–1883) *

(1883–1885) *

Hubert Herkomer Sir Hubert von Herkomer (born as Hubert Herkomer; 26 May 1849 – 31 March 1914) was a Bavarian-born British painter, pioneering film-director, and composer. Though a very successful portrait artist, especially of men, he is mainly remembered fo ...

(1885–1895) *

Harry Ellis Wooldridge Harry Ellis Wooldridge (28 March 1845 – 13 February 1917) was an English musical antiquary, artist and Professor of Fine Arts. His music collections included transcripts of 17th- and 18th-century Italian music. He enrolled at the Royal Aca ...

(1895–1904) * Charles Holmes (1904–1910) *

Selwyn Image Selwyn Image (17 February 1849, Bodiam, Sussex – 21 August 1930, London) was an important British artist, designer, writer and poet associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement. He designed stained-glass windows, furniture, embroidery, and w ...

(1910, 1913, 1914) (then suspended 1916–1921) * Arthur Mayger Hind (1921, 1923) * Reginald Gleadowe (1928–1933) *

Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel (1887 in Cambridge – 21 June 1959 in Westminster, London) was a British architect, writer and musician. Life Harry Stuart Goodhart was born on 29 May 1887 in Cambridge, England. He added the additional name Rende ...

(1933–1936) * Sir Philip Anstiss Hendy (1936–46) *

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television ...

(1946–48) *

Ellis Waterhouse Sir Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse (16 February 1905 – 7 September 1985) was an English art historian and museum director who specialised in Roman baroque and English painting. He was Director of the National Galleries of Scotland (1949–52) a ...

(1955) *

(1956) * Douglas Cooper (1957) * John Summerson (1958) * Eric Newton (1959) * George Zarnecki (1960) * Kenneth Clark (again, 1961) * Anthony Blunt (1962) * T. S. R. Boase (1963) * Quentin Bell (1964) *

Leslie Martin Sir John Leslie Martin (17 August 1908, in Manchester – 28 July 2000) was an English architect, and a leading advocate of the International Style. Martin's most famous building is the Royal Festival Hall. His work was especially influence ...

(1965) *

Sir David Piper Sir David Towry Piper CBE FSA FRSL (21 July 1918 – 29 December 1990) was a British museum curator and author. He was director of the National Portrait Gallery 1964–1967, and of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1967–1973; and Fellow of ...

(1966) *

Meyer Schapiro Meyer Schapiro (23 September 1904 – 3 March 1996) was a Lithuanian-born American art historian known for developing new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of works of art. An expert on earl ...

(1967) *

(1968) * F. J. B. Watson (1969) *

Otto Kurz Otto Kurz FBA (26 May 1908 in Vienna, Austria – 3 September 1975 in London) was a historian and Slade Professor of Fine Art, University of Oxford. Education * University of Vienna Career Fleeing to London from the Nazis, he was Librarian at ...

(1970) *

Robert Rosenblum Robert Rosenblum (July 24, 1927 – December 6, 2006) was an American art historian and curator known for his influential and often irreverent scholarship on European and American art of the mid-eighteenth to 20th centuries. Biography Rosenblum wa ...

(1971) * Seymour Slive (1972) * Michael Sullivan (1973) * Michael Baxandall (1974) * Mark Girouard (1975) *

Howard Hibbard Benjamin Howard Hibbard, Jr. (May 23, 1928 – October 29, 1984) was an American art historian and educator. Hibbard was Professor of Italian Baroque Art at Columbia University. Career A native of Madison, Hibbard was born to Margaret and Benja ...

(1976) *

Robert Herbert Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert, (12 June 1831 – 6 May 1905), was the first Premier of Queensland, Australia. At 28 years and 181 days of age, he was the youngest person ever to be elected premier of an Australian state. Early years Born ...

(1977) * John Beckwith (1978) * J. Mordaunt Crook (1979) *

(1980) * Jonathan Brown (1981) * J. F. Harris (1982) *

(1983) * Irving Lavin (1984) * Charles Hope (1985) *

John House John William House (15 September 1919 – 31 January 1984) was a British geographer, who was Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford from 1974 to 1983. Life House was born in 1919 and educated at Bradford Gramma ...

(1986) *

Henry Mayr-Harting Henry Maria Robert Egmont Mayr-Harting (born 6 April 1936) is a British medieval ecclesiastical historian. From 1997 to 2003, he was Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford and a lay canon of Christ Church, Oxford. ...

(1987) * Alistair Rowan (1988–89) * Elizabeth McGrath (1989–90) * Jennifer Fletcher (1990–91) * Michael Rodgers (1991–92) *

Kirk Varnedoe John Kirk Train Varnedoe (January 18, 1946 – August 14, 2003) was an American art historian, the Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art from 1988 to 2001, Professor of the History of Art at the Institute for Advance ...

(1992–93) *

Juliet Wilson-Bareau Juliet Capulet () is the female protagonist in William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy '' Romeo and Juliet''. A 13-year-old girl, Juliet is the only daughter of the patriarch of the House of Capulet. She falls in love with the male protagonist ...

(1993–94) *

Michael Levey Sir Michael Vincent Levey, LVO, FBA, FRSL (8 June 1927 – 28 December 2008) was a British art historian and was the director of the National Gallery from 1973 to 1986. Biography Levey was born in Wimbledon, London, and grew up in Leigh-on-S ...

(1994–95) * John Richardson (1995–96) * David Bomford (1996–97) * Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt (1997–98) *

Joseph Connors Joseph James Connors (born February 5, 1945 in New York City) is an American art historian and educator, who specializes in the Italian Renaissance and Baroque architecture. Career Born in New York City, Connors was graduated from Regis Hig ...

(1998–99) *

Robert Hewison Robert Alwyn Petrie Hewison (born 2 June 1943)‘HEWISON, Prof. Robert Alwyn Petrie’, Who's Who 2008, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 200accessed 26 March 2008/ref> is a British cultural historian. He was educated ...

(1999–2000) *

Donald Preziosi Donald Anthony Preziosi (born January 12, 1941) is an American art historian. He is Emeritus Professor of Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles. In August 2007, he became the MacGeorge Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He ...

(2000–01) *

Charles Saumarez Smith Sir Charles Robert Saumarez Smith (born 28 May 1954) is a British cultural historian specialising in the history of art, design and architecture. He was the Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts in London from 2007 until ...

(2001–02) *

Ernst van de Wetering Ernst van de Wetering (9 March 1938 – 11 August 2021) was a Dutch art historian and an expert on Rembrandt and his work. Background Ernst van de Wetering was born in Hengelo. He was first trained as an artist at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts ...

(2002–03) *

Craig Clunas Alistair Craig Clunas (born 1 December 1954 in Aberdeen, Scotland) is Professor Emeritus of History of Art at the University of Oxford. As a historian of the art and history of China, Clunas has focused particularly on the Ming Dynasty (1368–16 ...

(2003–04) * Larry Schaaf (2004–05) * Tom Phillips (2005–06) * Paul Binski (2006–07) * Alex Potts (2007–08) * Richard Thomson (2008–09) *

Dawn Adès Josephine Dawn Adès, (''née'' Tylden-Pattenson; born 6 May 1943), also known as Dawn Adès, is a British art historian and academic. She is professor emeritus of art history and theory at the University of Essex. Early life and education Ad ...

(2009–10) * Zainab Bahrani (2010–11) * Anthony Cutler (2011–12) *

Joseph Koerner Joseph Leo Koerner (born June 17, 1958) is an American art historian and filmmaker. He is currently the Victor S. Thomas Professor of the History of Art and Architecture and, since 2008, Senior Fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard Universi ...

(2012–13) * Tamar Garb (2013–14) *

Antony Griffiths Antony Vaughan Griffiths, (born 28 July 1951) is a British museum curator and art historian, specialising in prints and drawings. From 1991 to 2011, he served as Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum. He was Slade Profe ...

(2014–15) * Wu Hung (2015–16) * Caroline van Eck (2016–17) * David Ekserdjian (2017–18) * Finbarr Barry Flood (2018–19) * Karen Lang (2019–20) * Jerrilynn D. Dodds (2020–21) * Chika Okeke-Agulu (2022-23) ''Source:'' Oxford Slade Professors – History of Art Department
, Oxford University

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Professor of Fine Art, Slade British art Fine Art, Slade School of Arts and Humanities, University of Cambridge Fine Art, Slade Fine Art, Slade 1869 establishments in England Fine Art, Slade All Souls College, Oxford Lists of people associated with the University of Oxford *