Journal of Art Historiography (Dec 2011)
Tables for 'Art history in the university: Toelken – Hotho – Kugler'
Abstract
This essay offers a contextual reading of the extensive but little studied documentation for the education and subsequent university careers of E. H. Toelken (1785-1864), Gustav Heinrich Hotho (1802-1873) and Franz Kugler (1808-1858), three of the earliest art historians to earn doctoral degrees. Spanning about three decades, from 1804 to 1833, their training occurred during a period of rapid disciplinary specialization within the university. Examination of that training, and the teaching careers built on it, contributes to the larger investigation of how existing university structures and procedures accommodated but also informed emerging disciplines in early nineteenth-century Germany. The essay sets out the relevant academic policies and procedures and gives an overview of those trained and appointed in the historical study of art in Berlin between 1810 and 1840. Documents for Toelken and Kugler are then presented through narrative case histories.
