Transposing the Zeitgeist? Nikolaus Pevsner between Kunstgeschichte and Art History

Abstract

Throughout his career, the German-born art historian Nikolaus Pevsner (1902-1983) attempted to elevate the history of art and the history of architecture to the status of academic disciplines in Britain, the country to which he had emigrated in 1933. His theoretical approach, centred around the study of the links between artistic forms, national characters and the concept of Zeitgeist, informed the historical language that he gradually caused to spread in the United Kingdom. However, his seemingly unsuccessful attempt to establish himself as a Kunsthistoriker in Britain, indicates the existence of a strong consensus around the idea that national characteristics govern the discipline of art history as much as they govern the art studied.

Keywords

• Kunstgeschichte
• Nikolaus Pevsner
• displaced scholar
• intellectual immigration
• art history as a discipline
• Zeitgeist
• Wilhelm Pinder
• August Schmarsow