Andrew Ritchie (art Historian)
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Andrew Carnduff Ritchie (1907–1978) was a Scottish-born American art historian specialising in British 18th-century sculpture, a professor, museum director and post-World War II ' Monuments Man'.  He was the director of the
Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum located adjacent to Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, United States. The museum shows modern art and contemporary art. It is directly opposite Buff ...
in Buffalo, N.Y., director of Painting and Sculpture at the
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. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
, and director of the
Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is an art museum in New Haven, Connecticut. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University. Although it embraces all cultures and period ...
.


Early life and education

Andrew Carnduff Ritchie was born in
Bellshill Bellshill (pronounced "Bells hill") is a town in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, southeast of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. Other nearby localities are Motherwell to the south, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton to the south ...
in
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
in 1907. In 1922 he moved with his family to
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
. At 17 he took a job at
Westinghouse Electric The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was ...
in Pittsburgh in order to fund his higher education. He entered the
University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
in 1927, graduating with an MFA degree in medieval studies in 1933. He then obtained a fellowship to study at the
Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. The art collection is known particularly for ...
, University of London from 1933, graduating with a PhD in 1935. His dissertation topic was English medieval art. While at the Courtauld Andrew Ritchie contributed photographs to the
Conway Library The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. The art collection is known particularly for ...
whose archive is currently being digitised as part of the Courtauld Connects project.


Career

Returning from England in 1935 he began work as a research assistant and lecturer at the
Frick Collection The Frick Collection (colloquially known as the Frick) is an art museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was established in 1935 to preserve the collection of the industrialist Henry Clay Frick. The collection (museum) ...
in New York. He also lectured at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
and
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
. In 1942 Ritchie was appointed Director of the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo. He helped organize the first two catalogues of the museum's collection: ''Catalogue of the Paintings and Sculpture in the Permanent Collection'' and ''Catalogue of Contemporary Paintings and Sculpture: The Room of Contemporary Art Collection'' During his tenure at Albright he also organised courses for members of local military production plants and units, night classes at the Albright Art School and a series of concerts and dances. In January 1949 he moved to New York to become the Director of the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the
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. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
. In 1957 he left MoMA to head the
Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is an art museum in New Haven, Connecticut. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University. Although it embraces all cultures and period ...
. In the mid-1960s, when the art collector
Paul Mellon Paul Mellon (June 11, 1907 – February 2, 1999) was an American philanthropist and a horse breeding, breeder of thoroughbred horse racing, racehorses. He is one of only five people ever designated an "Exemplar of Racing" by the National Muse ...
was looking for a university to place his British art collection, Ritchie persuaded him to donate his collection, used as the basis for a new museum, the Yale Center for British Studies (now the
Yale Center for British Art The Yale Center for British Art at Yale University in central New Haven, Connecticut, houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. The collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, rare ...
). Ritchie also commissioned
Louis Kahn Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; – March 17, 1974) was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. Whil ...
to design the museum's innovative building, Ritchie continued to expand the collection. In 1970 he became the first American to be given an honorary doctorate from the
Royal College of Art, London The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...
. He retired from Yale in 1971, and then spent a year as
Robert Sterling Clark Robert Sterling Clark (June 25, 1877 – December 29, 1956), an heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune, was an American art collector, Horse breeding, horse breeder, and philanthropist. Biography Known by his middle name, Sterling Clark served ...
Professor of Art History at
Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...
in Massachusetts. Ritchie died in Sharon, Connecticut on August 12, 1978. The  Yale Center for British Art and the Yale University Art Gallery jointly sponsor the annual Andrew C. Ritchie Lecture in memory of his achievements.


Work with the 'Monuments Men' 1945–1946

In 1945 Ritchie was selected by the
Roberts Commission The Roberts Commission is one of two presidentially-appointed commissions. One related to the circumstances of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and another related to the protection of cultural resources during and after World War II. Both were ...
to serve in the Monuments and Fine Arts Section of the United States Army – known as the Monuments Men – as a representative of the Commanding General in Austria, a civilian with the rank of colonel. Between June 1945 and May 1946, he assisted in the repatriation of art stolen by the Nazis. He went to Munich, the main collecting point for works of art that had been stolen by the Nazis and stored in salt mines in Austria. His role was to supervise the return of works of art to their original countries – France, Netherlands etc. There he dealt with representatives of the various countries who were claiming losses.  He was helped in his task by the  meticulous details the Nazis kept about the origin of each plundered art work down to the day it arrived at the salt mines and the number of the train that delivered it. These details helped him to establish the veracity of each claim. In addition, the art was very well conserved as the salt mines provided ideal storage with natural air conditioning and a steady temperature. Ritchie was responsible for personally delivering two important  items: a self-portrait by
Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , ; see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch ...
, and the Habsberg Treasure. The Vermeer self-portrait, '
The Art of Painting ''The Art of Painting'', also known as ''The Allegory of Painting'' (Dutch: ''Allegorie op de schilderkunst''), or ''Painter in his Studio'', is a 17th-century oil on canvas painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It is owned by the Aust ...
'.  Originally owned by the Austrian
Czernin family The Czernin family (; ) is a European noble family that was one of the oldest and most prominent noble families in the Kingdom of Bohemia. The family can claim descent from many important European noble families, including the distant one fro ...
, it was claimed that in 1940 Count Jaromir Czernin had to sell the painting to
Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
under duress in order to save the life of his family. However the Austrian state determined that as it had been sold, the family was not due restitution, and it belonged to the state. Ritchie travelled to Vienna by train with the painting to hand it over to the
Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien ( "Vienna Museum of art history, Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, i ...
. He locked himself in a sleeping compartment with the picture and a splendid picnic of pheasant and Burgundy supplied by a French colleague. Subsequently the ownership of the painting was disputed, and the Czernin family pressed for the painting to be returned to them, but the Austrian authorities decided in 2011 that the sale was not forced and that the Czernin family could not claim ownership. In order to emphasise the separation of the Austrian state from Germany, Ritchie was tasked to return the whole Habsberg Treasure to Vienna. Hitler had taken this from Austria to Nuremberg to emphasise the unification of the old Habsburg empire. Having requested some railway carriages to transport them, it was found that the packing cases – particularly that containing the 13th century coronation cope were too big for the train so a C-47 plane was commandeered instead. He was later honoured by France and the Netherlands for this work and received the Cross of the
French Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...
.


Publications

*''Types and Antitypes of the Passion in English Mediaeval art, 12th-13th Centuries.'' University of London (Courtauld Institute of Art) 1935. *''English Painters, Hogarth to Constable: Lectures Delivered April 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 1940, at the Johns Hopkins University.'' *''Aristide Maillol, with an Introduction and Survey of the Artist's Work in American Collections.'' Buffalo, NY: Albright Art Gallery, 1945. *''Sculpture in the Twentieth Century.'' New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1952. *''The New Decade: 22 European Painters and Sculptors.'' New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1955. *''Masters of British Painting, 1800–1950'' rom the collections ofthe Museum of Modern Art, New York. *''German Art of the Twentieth Century'', by Werner Haftmann, Alfred Hentzen ndWilliam S. Lieberman. Edited by Andrew Carnduff Ritchie.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richie, Andrew Carnduff People from Bellshill University of Pittsburgh alumni Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art New York University Institute of Fine Arts faculty Johns Hopkins University faculty People associated with the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) Williams College faculty Recipients of the Legion of Honour American art historians Writers from Pittsburgh British emigrants to the United States 1907 births 1978 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers Historians from Pennsylvania Directors of museums in the United States Historians from New York (state) Yale University staff