George Fisk Comfort
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| George Fisk Comfort | |
| Born | September 20, 1833 |
|---|---|
| Died | 1910 |
| Occupation | Art scholar and exponent |
George Fisk Comfort (September 20, 1833 - 1910) was a 19th century American scholar and art exponent, and founder of both the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, and Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY.
Comfort was born in Berkshire, New York. He attended Wesleyan University in Middleton, CT. In 1860, Comfort traveled to Europe to study art history and archaeology where he stayed until 1865. In Berlin, he was influenced by meetings and studies with the philosopher Friedrich Kaulbach, Carl Richard Lepsius (curator of Egyptology at the Berlin Museum), Gemäldegalerie director Gustav Waagen, Leopold von Ranke, among others. From 1865-1868 he served as professor of languages at Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania.
While residing in New York upon his return to the United States, he helped found the American Philological Society, of which he was president in 1869-74. In 1869, he helped found the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The following year he published his Art Museums in America, a book outlining his vision for museums and museum education in the United States. His other publishing credits include a series of textbooks for the German language. His papers are held at Syracuse University and the Archives of American Art. Comfort remained on the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art until 1872. In 1872, he was appointed professor of aesthetics and modern languages at the newly founded Syracuse University. He was instrumental in founding the College of Fine Arts at Syracuse University in 1873. In 1896, Comfort founded the Everson Museum of Art at Syracuse, holding its first exhibition in 1900. Under Comfort's leadership the museum developed the first regular educational program in a museum in America.
Comfort's outline for art museums in the United States became the principal vision, based on the German model. His facility in the German language directly transported those ideas to the United States. His famous Union League Club address espoused an art museum for New York that "represent[ed] the History of Art in all countries and in all ages of art both pure and applied."
