Ernst H. Gombrich

Ernst Gombrich (1909–2001) was an Austrian-born art historian who spent most of his career in the United Kingdom and naturalized as a British citizen in 1947. His mother Leonie Gombrich was a distinguished pianist and music teacher, and Ernst developed a keen appreciation and brilliant knowledge of classical music throughout his life. Gombrich authored many critically acclaimed books on cultural history, including The Story of Art (1950), widely known as one of the most accessible introductions to the visual arts. He received an honorable title of a Fellow of the British Academy (1960) and Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (1966), became a Knight Bachelor in 1972 and an Order of Merit member in 1988. Soon after the Nazis annexed Austria, Ernst Gombrich escaped the country and moved to Britain in 1939, where he became a research assistant at the Warburg Institute, University of London. During World War II, Gombrich had been monitoring German radio broadcasts for the BBC World Service. When he heard an unscheduled performance of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 3 (written on Wagner's death) prefacing an upcoming announcement, Ernst shrewdly guessed that Adolf Hitler just died and informed the office of Winston Churchill. Gombrich returned to the Warburg Institute in November 1945. The immediate success of The Story of Art book led to a quick rise in his career, and soon the researcher was appointed a Professor of the History of the Classical Tradition. He also became a Slade Professor of Fine Art at the Oxford University in 1950 and lectured there for three years. From 1959 to 1972, Ernst Gombrich worked as a director of the Warburg Institute.