Ernst+Gombrich

Art historian **Ernst Gombrich **was born on March 30, 1909 and died on November 3, 2001 in Austria. He later became a naturalized British citizen. He has written many books of art criticism and history. His //The Story of Art// is regarded as an accessible introductions to the visual arts. It was first published in 1950 and is currently in its 16th edition. Although originally intended for adolescent readers, it has been very popular and been translated into more than 30 languages. Before he came to Britain in 1936, Gombrich went to Theresianum Secondary School and Vienna University. In Britain, Gombrich became a research assistant at the University of London. That same year, he married Ilse Heller. They had an only child who later became a noted Indologist and scholar of Buddhism. Gombrich worked for BBC World Service during WWII. He was the person who guessed that Hilter was dead and told Churchill. Later, in 1945, he returned to the University and became a Senior Research Fellow, Lecturer, Reader, and later Professor of the History of the Classical Tradition and director of the institute. Gombrich became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1960, made CBE in 1966, knighted in 1972, and appointed a member of the Order of Merit in 1988. He recieved many honours, including Balzan Prize in 1985 for History of Western Art. Gombrich's first book was //Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser // (1936) (A short history of the world for young readers), published in Germany. It was very popular and translated into several languages. Other major publications include //Art and Illusion // (1960), //Meditations on a Hobby Horse // (1963) and //The Image and the Eye // (1981), //Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography // (1970), //The Sense of Order // (1979) and //The Preference for the Primitive //(posthumously in 2002).