John Fleming (12 June 1919 – 29 May 2001) was a British
art historian, known for his writing partnership with
Hugh Honour. Their ''A World History of Art'' (aka, ''The Visual Arts: A History''), first published in 1982, is now in its seventh edition. Fleming's ''Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh and Rome'' (1961) won the Bannister Fletcher Prize and the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medal.
Biography
Fleming was born in
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census reco ...
, the son of a local Solicitor. He was educated at
Rugby School
Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England.
Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...
and read English at
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
where he met
Hugh Honour, who would become Fleming's life partner. He travelled to Italy and during World War II was briefly a
conscientious objector before entering the British Army
Intelligence Corps in Cairo. There he began to write about art with the encouragement of
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 ...
.
Living in
Asolo
Asolo () is a town and '' comune'' in the Veneto Region of northern Italy. It is known as "The Pearl of the province of Treviso", and also as "The City of a Hundred Horizons" for its mountain settings.
History
The town was originally a settlem ...
near
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
, Honour and Fleming began a productive writing partnership. They were commissioned by publisher
Allen Lane to edit the ''Style and Civilisation'' series (begun 1967); the ''Architect and Society'' series (begun 1966); and the ''Art in Context'' series (begun 1972).
''Fleming, John''
– Dictionary of Art Historians, 2013. Retrieved 28 September 2013
/ref>
In 1962, Honour and Fleming moved to Villa Marchiò near Lucca where they remained for the rest of their lives. In 1966, they collaborated with Nikolaus Pevsner to produce ''The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture'' (2nd edition 1972), and in 1977 they wrote ''The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts''. ''A World History of Art'' (aka, ''The Visual Arts: A History'') followed in 1982 and the ''Venetian Hours of Henry James, Whistler and Sargent'' in 1991.
Fleming died in Tofori, near Lucca
Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957.
Lucca is known as one ...
.
Selected publications
* ''Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh and Rome''. 1961.
* ''Penguin Dictionary of Architecture.'' 1966. (With Nikolaus Pevsner and Hugh Honour)
** -do.- 2nd edition, 1972.
* ''The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts''. London: Allen Lane, 1977. (With Hugh Honour)
* ''A World History of Art''. 1982. (With Hugh Honour)
* ''The Venetian Hours of Henry James, Whistler, and Sargent.'' 1991. (With Hugh Honour)
* ''The Visual Arts: a history.'' 1995. (With Hugh Honour)
References and sources
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, John
1919 births
2001 deaths
British art historians
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
People from Berwick-upon-Tweed