Theodore Stebbins

Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. is an American art historian, museum curator, university professor, and writer.

Stebbins is the Curator of American Art at Harvard University's Fogg Art Museum. For 22 years, from 1977 to 1999, he was the John Moors Cabot Curator of American Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. During his tenure, he organized nineteen exhibitions ranging from John Singleton Copley in the 18th century to The Lane Collection and its important holdings of modern art. As curator, he guided the museum's acquisition of over three hundred paintings, from 17th century limners to Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol. Previously, he was an associate professor of art history and curator of American painting and sculpture at Yale University.At Yale, he built the collection of 19th century American landscape and still life painting; his major purchase was Frederic E. Church's great Mount Ktaadn of 1853.^[1]

Complementing his career as a curator and as an academic, he serves on the Board of Directors and the Art Advisory Council of the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR).^[2] He also serves as a trustee of the Heinz Family Foundation, Pittsburgh, Pa. He has served as advisor to the Henry Luce Foundation, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Art Museums, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the James McGlothlin Collection, and many other individuals, museums, and foundations. He was advisor to the Kingdom of Spain when it acquired the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection of American Art.

Education

Stebbins holds a law degree as well as a master’s and a doctorate.^[3] His article on "The Problem of Tort Libabilty for the Art Expert" has been reproduced in numerous casebooks and for many years remained a standard reference.

Career

Stebbins has was a teacher at Smith College, and Boston University.^[4] He is widely known as the leading authority on the paintings of Martin Johnson Heade. Althought how indepth his study and understanding of Heade paintings is unknown. Is Mr. Stebbins the only authorized professor who can authenticate of Martin J. Heade's paintings? It is bewildering how he can say a painting is not a Martin Heade without looking at the painting.

• 2008 American Paintings at Harvard, vol. II: Paintings, Watercolors, Pasdtels, and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856 (Yale Universoity Press, New Haven, Ct.) ISBN 978-1-891771-49-1
• 2007 The Last Ruskinians: Charles Eliot Norton, Charles Herbert Moore, and their Circle (Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Ma.) ISBN -13: 978-1-891771-44-6
• 2003 — Life As Art: Paintings by Gregory Gillespie and Frances Cohen Gillespie. Cambridge: Harvard University Art Museum. 10-ISBN 1891771299, 13-ISBN 9781891771293; OCLC 52937511
• 2000 — The Life and Work of Martin Johnson Heade: A Critical Analysis and Catalogue Raisonne. New Haven: Yale University Press.10-ISBN 0300081839, 13-ISBN 9780300081831; OCLC 247135724
• 1999 Edward Weston: Photography and Modernism (Little Brown, Boston) ISBN 0-8212-2588-X
• 1992 The Lure of Italy: American Artists and the Italian Experience, 1760-1914 (Harry Abrams, New York) ISBN 0-8109-3561-9
• 1988 A Book by Anselm Kiefer (with S. Ricci) (George Braziller Publishers, New York) ISBN 0-8076-1191-3
• 1987 — Charles Sheeler: the Photographs with Norman Keyes Jr. New York: New York Graphic Society. 10-ISBN 0878462856, 13-ISBN 9780878462858; OCLC 18052871
• 1983 The Lane Collection: 20th Century Paintings in the American Tradition (with C. Troyen) (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) ISBN 0-87846-233-5
• 1979 A Man of Genius: The Art of Washington Allstonm (with W.H. Gerdts) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ISBN 0-87846-146-9
• 1978 Close Observation: Selected Oil Sketches by Frederic E. Church (Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.) ISBN0-87474--888-7
• 1976 — http://books.google.com/books?id=zJn6QwAACAAJ&dq=The+Hudson+River+School:+19th+century+American+Landscapes+in+the+Wadsworth+Atheneum&lr=&cd=2 The Hudson River School: 19th century American Landscapes in the Wadsworth Atheneum.] Hartford, Connecticut: Wadsworth Atheneum. OCLC 2359361
• 1976 American Master Drawings and Watercolors: A History of Works on Paper from Colonial Times to the Present (Harper and Row, New York), ISBN 0-06-014068-2
• 1975 The Life and Works of Martin Johnson Heade(Yale University Press, New Haven, Ct.)

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