Architect Critic Nikolaus Pevsner
Architectural and Art Historian Founded Buildings of England Series
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner was one of the great architectural critics of the twentieth century, a leader in his field who revolutionised ideas of building design.
Nikolaus Pevsner is remembered as one of the leading architectural critics of the 20th century, the founder of The Buildings of England series which remains unrivalled to this day. The irony is that this man who did so much to boost Britain’s architectural legacy actually came from Germany.
Early Life and Study
Pevsner was born in Leipzig, Saxony, during 1902. His family was Jewish and his father, Hugo Pevsner, was an affluent businessman. Pevsner nurtured an interest for art history whilst at grammar school.
His studies took him to the universities at Leipzig, Munich, Berlin and Frankfurt. Pevsner married in 1924, his bride was Karola Kurlbaum, the daughter of a judge. He was still a young man when his critique of Italian baroque painting was published: Die italienische Materei vom Ende der Renaissance bis zum ausgehenden Rokoko (1928-32).
From 1924-28 Pevsner was Assistant Keeper at the Dresden Gallery, then he was appointed Lecturer of the history of art and architecture at Gottingen University.
England
During 1930 Pevsner made a prolonged visit to England, the beginnings of his love affair with English art and architecture. His academic life in Gottingen was overshadowed by the rise of the Nazi party in 1933. Unwilling to wait and see how tolerant the new regime would be of Germans of Jewish descent: Pevsner emigrated to London in 1934.
He found work as a lecturer and buyer of fine art for his friend Gordon Russell, a designer of the Royal College of Art. During 1936 Pevsner had published his Pioneers of the Modern Design in which he expounded how art and architecture should serve the public good.
Pevsner’s work was not disrupted by the Second World War, indeed he was editing The Architectural Review from 1942-45. Further to this, he became general editor for The Pelican History of Art: a landmark in art criticism.
An Outline of European Architecture (1943) was the fruition of Pevsner’s thoughts of historic, mainly religious, architecture throughout Western Europe. He became Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge (1949-55) and later at Oxford (1968-9). He was also appointed a fellow at St.John’s College, Cambridge.
The Buildings of England
The great work for which Pevsner is chiefly remembered in Great Britain – The Buildings of England – was begun by him in 1951 and concluded in 1974. More than two decades of painstaking research and observation carried out by Pevsner and his team. He wrote most of the original 46 volumes, organized by county, that surveyed all English architecture of note. A perfectionist, he visited every building he described.
The volumes followed a general style, overviewing the character of each area followed by a detailed alphabetic gazetter by location. Cathedrals and other urban churches are featured yet Pevsner also devotes many pages to rural churches and industrial buildings.
In 1959 Pevsner became Professor of Art at Birkbeck College, University of London. His worth was further rewarded on his retirement in 1969 when he became Emeritis Professor. Pevsner received accolades throughout his life for services to architecture, a CBE in 1953 was followed by a Knighthood in 1969.
Pevsner lived in a state of semi-retirement throughout the 1970s, overseeing the conclusion of The Buildings of England and then turning his energy to A History of Building Types (1976).
Nikolaus Pevsner died on 18 August 1983, he was a giant in his field and devoted a lifetime to architecture and art. His services to British architecture was quite outstanding, and his legacy and studies still influence architectural thought to this day.
