by Jon Lackman | 20 May 2008 | Uncategorized
From The Age:
Peter Tomory, an inspirational figure in the art world who was foundation professor of art history at La Trobe University, has died in Wales, aged 86. His passionate commitment to art, its history and scholarship was matched by an instinct for pedagogy … [He] was a colourful conversationalist and tireless raconteur, both charming and feisty, although he could also be curmudgeonly. He took a dim view of parochial self-importance and was quick to puncture pomposity and self-promotion, which did not always earn him friends in the art world. His professional reputation was established soon after his graduation from Edinburgh when he published the Ellesmere Collection of drawings by Annibale Carracci — some of which were later acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria — at a time when scholarly interest in Baroque art was in its infancy … In 1972 he published The Life and Art of Henry Fuseli, a scholarly monograph on the artist’s work. Following his teaching positions in Auckland, he was associate professor at Columbia University, New York, and senior curator of baroque art at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida, before he was appointed at La Trobe.
