Enriqueta Harris

Enriqueta Harris Frankort (17 May 1910 — 22 April 2006) was an English painting scholar, writer and art historian who specialised in Spanish art. Born into a family with an English father and a Spanish mother, she attended the University College London to read modern languages and later studied a Doctor of Philosophy art degree under Tancred Borenius. Harris travelled to Spain to research Caravaggio's influence on 17th-century Spanish paintings and her first book was published in 1938. She billeted Basque child refugees during the Spanish Civil War and worked with the Ministry of Information to keep Spain neutral during World War II. After the war ended she worked in the Warburg Institute and was offered the post in their photographic collection in 1947. Harris worked there until her retirement albeit for two years when she was married to the institution's director Henri Frankort. Her work on Spanish paintings earned her widespread recognition in the country and received multiple awards and honours.

Biography

Early life

Enriqueta Harris Frankfort was born on 17 May 1910 in Hampstead, London.[1][2] Her father, Lionel Harris, was an English art dealer specialising in Spanish paintings, and her mother, Enriqueta Rodriquez, was a Spanish woman who converted to Judaism to marry Harris's father.[3] Harris was raised in a Jewish household,[1] and had one elder brother, Tomas.[2] She was introduced to the world of art from an early age.[4] She attended the University College London in 1928 to read the Italian and French languages. Harris was one of the university's first students to enroll in art history courses that were introduced in the curriculum in her second year.[1] She graduated in 1931[2] but remained at the university to study a Doctor of Philosophy degree under art historian Tancred Borenius, completing a thesis on the followers of painter Francisco Goya in 1934.[3]

Career

Harris travelled to Spain with a grant from the Leverhulme Foundation for research on Caravaggio's influence on 17th-century Spanish paintings and combined this with a part-time teaching post at the Courtauld Institute of Art.[1][2] She attempted to find employment in museums but almost none had positions open for women.[3] While in Spain Harris met art historian August Liebmann Mayer and established a friendships with future Museo del Prado director Diego Angulo Íñiguez and the poet Manuel Altolaguirre. She also came into contact with scientists who had emigrated from Germany to the United Kingdom.[4] In 1938, Harris's first book, The Golden Age of Spanish Art, was published.[1] Towards to the conclusion of the Spanish Civil War, she arranged for the temporary accommodation of Basque child refugees in England,[2] and followed this with work for the Ministry of Information's Spanish section which encouraged Spain to remain neutral during World War II.[1]

Despite the time spent billeting children Harris still conducted her own research while spending six months as a tuition fellow at New York University. She remained in contact with friends during World War II, visiting them at weekends and organised their photographic collections and work in their gardens.[2] After the war ended in 1945 Harris renewed her contract with the Warburg Institute and was offered the post in the institution's photographic collection two years later.[1] At Warburg she met Henri Frankfort, a distinguished archaeologist and the institution's director, and married him in 1952 after Frankort divorced his wife.[3] Their marriage ended two years later following Frankort's death. Harris returned to her position at the Warburg Institute as her marriage led to her resigning her job. She spent multiple years reviewing books and attending exhibitions saw new articles relating to Diego Velázquez's paintings and life.[2]

Later career and death

Harris served on the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition's executive committee of 1963-64 and produced a conglomeration of Goya-related articles which had little or unknown information about the painter. She later published an appraisal of his life and work in a book for Phaidon Press in 1969.[2] The following year she announced her retirement from the university. Her book on Velázquez was published in 1982.[3] During Harris's later years arthritis caused increased difficulty for her to travel and work in libraries, but formed collaborative enterprises with her extensive knowledge and shrewd judgement at the disposition of younger scholars.[2] She funded lecture series at University College London and fellowships at the Warburg Institute.[1]

Harris's work on Spanish paintings garnered widespread recognition in the country,[1] being made a Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando corresponding member in Madrid.[2] In 1989 she received the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts from Juan Carlos I, and received the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic in 2002, and later the same year, the published homage of the Friends of the Prado Museum Foundation in 2002.[2] She died on 22 April 2006 at the age of 95. Harris was survived by her stepson and his family.[1] The Warburg Institute holds a collection related to Harris in its photograph section. They include her personal papers and photographs connected to lifetime's work.[5]

Bibliography

  • Velázquez (1982, In English; 1991, In Spanish and French, Reissued in 2003
  • Études complètes sur Velázquez (1999), In Spanish and English, (2006).
  • Goya (1994), Phaidon Press Limited, ISBN 9780714829753.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Kauffman, Michael (16 May 2006). "Enriqueta Harris". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Enriqueta Harris; The Register". The Times. 20 May 2006. p. 76. Retrieved 29 July 2017 – via Academic OneFile. (Subscription required (help)).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Harris, Enriqueta (between 1952 and 1954, Enriqueta Harris Frankfort)". Dictionary of Art Historians. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  4. 1 2 Finaldi, Gabriele (28 April 2006). "Enriqueta Harris, historiadora del arte experta en goya, El Greco y Velázquez". El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  5. ↑ "Enriqueta Harris Frankfort Bequest". Warburg Institute. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
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