HName:  Adhémar, Jean

DateBorn:  1908

Placeborn:  Paris, France

Datedied:  1987

Placedied:  Paris, France

HDescrip:  Art historian and museum department director, print specialist; established a genre of art-historical research exploring the importance of classical culture to that of the Middle Ages.  Noted for his writing stressing the relationship of literature to the arts. Adhémar studied under Marcel Aubert (q.v.) at École des Chartres and Henri Focillon (q.v.) at the Sorbonne.  He established a working relationship with Fritz Saxl (q.v.) at the Warburg Institute, whose methodology he adopted in part.  He was appointed director, Cabinet des Estampes et de Photographie, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, in 1961, a position he held until 1977.  During that time he edited Diderot's Salon reviews into book form with Jean Seznec (q.v.).  He was editor of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1956-87), he also founded the serial Nouvelles de l'estampe in 1965.  

HCountry:  France

HBiography:  Bazin, Germain. Histoire de l'histoire de l'art; de Vasari à nos jours. Paris: Albin Michel, 1986, p. 151; The Dictionary of Art 1: 154

HBibliography:  Imagerie populaire française. Milan: Electa, 1968; Influences antiques dans l'art du moyen âge français: recherches sur les sources et les thèmes d'inspiration. Studies of the Warburg Institute 7.  London: Warburg Institute, 1939; Chronologie impressionniste: 1863-1905.  Paris: Editions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1981;  edited, with Seznec, Jean.  Diderot, Denis. Salons. 4 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957-1966, 2nd ed. 3 vols. 1975-83; "In Praise of Lithography."  In, Lithography: 200 Years of Art, History & Technique.  New York: H. N. Abrams, 1983; Toulouse-Lautrec: lithographies, pointes sèches, oeuvre complet. Paris: Arts et métiers graphiques, 1965, English, Toulouse-Lautrec: His Complete Lithographs and Drypoints. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1965; La Gravure originale au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: A. Somogy, 1963, English, Graphic Art of the 18th Century. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964; Gravure originale au XXe siècle. Paris: A. Somogy, 1967. English, Twentieth-century Graphics.  New York:  Praeger,1971; Lithographies de paysages en France à l'époque romantique. Archives de l'art français, nouv. période 19.  Paris: A. Colin,1939.