Peter Tomory
{{Short description|British art historian, museum curator and academic}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Peter Tomory
| honorific_suffix =
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1922|01|03}}
| birth_place = Hong Kong
| death_date = {{death date and age |df=yes|2008|03|25|1922|01|03}}
| death_place = Rhayader, Powys, Wales
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| discipline = Art history
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| workplaces = York Art Gallery
Auckland City Art Gallery
University of Auckland
Columbia University
Hunter College
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
La Trobe University
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Peter Alexander Tomory (3 January 1922 – 25 March 2008) was a British art historian, museum curator and director.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/peter-tomory-distinguished-art-historian-835821.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/peter-tomory-distinguished-art-historian-835821.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Peter Tomory: Distinguished Art Historian |date=28 May 2008 |work=The Independent |accessdate=12 November 2019}}{{cite journal |title=Peter Alexander Tomory (1922–2008) |journal=Proceedings of the Australian Academy of the Humanities |volume=33 |url=http://www.humanities.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/AAH-Obit-Tomory-2008.pdf |author1=Joan Barclay Lloyd |pages=53–55 |date=2008}}
Biography
Tomory was born in Hong Kong and educated in India and the UK. In 1940 he joined the Royal Navy and served for five and a half years, including patrols on the Murmansk run. After the War he undertook postgraduate study at University of Edinburgh.{{cite web |url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/archives/19608 |title=Peter Tomory Archive |publisher=Auckland Art Gallery |accessdate=12 November 2019}}
In 1950 he was appointed Assistant Curator of York Art Gallery under Hans Hess. In 1951 he curated the gallery's contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain, titled "Masterpieces from Yorkshire Houses". He was appointed director of the Auckland City Art Gallery, where he worked from 1956–65; an archive of his research, lecture notes and diaries from his time there is retained by the museum.
Tomory worked with Colin McCahon in the gallery to promote the institutional focus of the gallery towards historical and contemporary New Zealand art. He also founded a research journal in the gallery, the Gallery Quarterly. The Auckland Art Gallery acquired 124 prints from Tomory's private collection in 2004.{{cite news |url=https://www.thebigidea.nz/node/178141 |title=Auckland Art Gallery farewells Peter Tomory |date=19 April 2008 |work=The Big Idea NZ |accessdate=12 November 2019}}
He left the art gallery in 1964 to take up a post in the newly formed Art History department of the University of Auckland. He left that post to teach at Columbia University and Hunter College. He also worked as the Senior Curator of Baroque Art at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.
In 1972 he was appointed Professor of the History of Art at La Trobe University where he worked for fifteen years. He was appointed a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1974 and served on its council from 1984 to 1986. He was also a founding member of the Art Association of Australia.
Select publications
- 1979. (with J H Füssli). The poetical circle: Fuseli and the British
- 1989. (with Robert Gaston) European paintings before 1800: in Australian and New Zealand public collections
- 1997. (with Anne Kirker). British Painting 1800–1990 in Australian and New Zealand Collections. Sydney, Beagle Press.
References
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Category:Employees of York Art Gallery
Category:Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
Category:Academic staff of La Trobe University
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:Hunter College faculty
Category:Academic staff of the University of Auckland
Category:British expatriates in Hong Kong
Category:British people in colonial India
Category:British expatriates in New Zealand
Category:British expatriates in the United States