Author: David Cast
Source: Journal of Art Historiography, Number 23, December 2020
Publication Type: Article
Abstract: The arrival in England in the 1930s of scholars, trained in the German tradition of Kulturwissenschaft, had an immense effect on the study of the history of art in their new country. Yet the intellectual exchange went both ways and the present article, beyond describing the often difficult personal and professional situations these exiles encountered in their new surroundings, examines how much their work was affected by the traditions and opportunities of intellectual enquiry, familiar in England since the middle of the XIXth century. Note is also taken of the public effect of their work, most notably in the activities of Pevsner, both in his editorship of the volumes in the Pelican History of Art and his tireless travels for the series The Buildings of England.