Hugh Honour

Hugh Honour FRSL (born 26 September 1927) is a British art historian, well known for his writing partnership with John Fleming. Their A World History of Art, is now in its seventh edition and Honour's Chinoiserie: The Vision of Cathay (1961) first set the phenomenon of chinoiserie in its European cultural context.

Early life

Honour was born in Eastbourne, Sussex, to Herbert and Dorothy (Withers) Honour. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from St Catharine's College, Cambridge.^[1] While at Cambridge, Honour met John Fleming, a solicitor and amateur art historian, who would become Honour's life partner. Honour accepted a position as Assistant director of Leeds City Art Gallery and Temple Newsam House but left after one year to join Fleming in Italy.

Life in Italy

Living in Asolo near Venice, Honour and Fleming began a productive writing partnership. They were commissioned by publisher Allen Lane to edit the Style and Civilisation series (begun 1967), for which Honour wrote the volumes on Neo-classicism and Romanticism; the Architect and Society series (begun 1966); and the Art in Context series (begun 1972).^[2]

In 1962, Honour and Fleming moved to Villa Marchiò near Lucca where they remained for the rest of their lives. In 1966, they collaborated with Nikolaus Pevsner to produce The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture (2nd edition 1972), and in 1977 they wrote The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts. A World History of Art followed in 1982 and the Venetian Hours of Henry James, Whistler and Sargent in 1991.

Honour was elected in 1972 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature ^[3]

Selected publications

Books

• Horace Walpole. 1957.
• The Companion Guide to Venice. 1965.
• Romanticism.
• Neo-Classicism (Style and Civilization). 1968.
• Chinoiserie: The Vision of Cathay. 1961.
• The Companion Guide to Venice. 1965. ISBN 1900639246
• Penguin Dictionary of Architecture. 1966. (With Nikolaus Pevsner and John Fleming)
  • -do.-2nd edition, 1972.
• The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts. London: Allen Lane, 1977. (With John Fleming) ISBN 0713909412
• A World History of Art. 1982. (With John Fleming)
• The Venetian Hours of Henry James, Whistler, and Sargent. 1991. (With John Fleming)
• The Visual Arts: a history. 1995. (With John Fleming)
• The Image of the Black in Western Art.
• The New Golden Land: European images of America from the discoveries to the present time. London: Allen Lane, 1976.

Articles

• "Canova and the Anglo-Romans. Part I: The First Visit to Rome. Part II: The First Years in Rome." The Connoisseur, May and December 1959. 227-228.
• "Canova’s Studio Practice. I: The Early Years. II: 1792–1822." The Burlington Magazine, CXIV, 1972. 147-159, 214-229.

References and sources

References

Sources

• "Hugh Honour", Contemporary Authors Online, Gale Group, accessed October 2008.