Ernst H. Gombrich

Ernst H. Gombrich (born March 30, 1909, Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now in Austria]—died November 3, 2001, London, England) was an Austrian-born art historian who was one of the field’s greatest popularizers, introducing art to a wide audience through his best-known book, The Story of Art (1950; 16th rev. ed. 1995).

Gombrich studied art history under Julius von Schlosser at the University of Vienna. In 1936 he moved to London, where he became a research assistant at the Warburg Institute. During World War II he worked at the British Broadcasting Corporation, translating German-language radio broadcasts. In 1946 he returned to the institute and held a series of positions there before becoming director in 1959; he remained at the post until his retirement in 1976. Gombrich also held academic appointments at the Universities of Oxford, London, and Cambridge, as well as at Harvard and Cornell universities in the United States.

Gombrich’s first book, Weltgeschichte von der Urzeit bis zur Gegenwart (1936)—also published as Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser (1985; “A Short History of the World for Children”) and in English as A Little History of the World (2005)—led to the idea of an art book for children. The result was The Story of Art, a clearly written work that appealed to both youth and adults. Eschewing aesthetics and art criticism, which he considered too deeply rooted in personal emotions, Gombrich focused on iconography and innovations in technique, taste, and form as demonstrated in specific works by individual artists. He also had little use for modernism, which he derided as overly commercial and too often bent on novelty for its own sake. An international best seller, The Story of Art was translated into more than 20 languages.

Also influential was Art and Illusion (1960), in which Gombrich examined how people perceive images. Other notable works included Meditations on a Hobby Horse, and Other Essays on the Theory of Art (1963), The Sense of Order (1979), and The Image and the Eye (1981). The recipient of numerous honours, Gombrich was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1960. He later was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1966), knighted (1972), and appointed a member of the Order of Merit (1988).