E H Gombrich

E. H. Gombrich (1909-2001), author of the six-million-copy international bestseller The Story of Art and other classic works, was probably the best-known art historian of his time. Born in Vienna in 1909, he moved to Londn in 1936, working at the BBC and later becoming director of the Warburg Institute and professor of the history of the classical tradition at London University. Among his many honors were the Erasmus Prize, the Hegel Prize, the Wittgenstein Prize, and the Goethe Prize. He was knighted in 1972 and appointed a member of the Order of Merit in 1988.