Henri Focillon was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 art historian.

Director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. Professor of Art History

Art history

Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...

 at the University of Lyon

Lyon

Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....

, at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, at the Sorbonne

Sorbonne

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

, at the Collège de France

Collège de France

The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...

 and then in the United States, where he went into exile and taught at Yale University. Poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, printmaker, and a teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

 without equal, Henri Focillon formed generations of art historians including George Kubler

George Kubler

George Alexander Kubler was an American art historian and among the foremost scholars on the art of Pre-Columbian America and Ibero-American Art....

. He remains best known for his works on medieval art, most of which were translated into English.

Partial bibliography

• Vie des formes (1934, "The Life of Forms")
• Éloge de la main
• Benvenuto Cellini

Medieval Art

• Art des sculpteurs romans (1932)
• Art d'occident 1 : Moyen Âge roman et gothique
• Art d'occident 2 : Moyen Âge gothique (1938)
• Moyen Age. Survivances et réveils (1943)
• Piero della Francesca (1951)
• L'An mil (1952)

Painting

• La peinture au XIXe et XXe siècles (1927-1928, "Painting in the 19th and 20th Centuries")
• De Callot à Lautrec. perspectives de l’art français ("From Callot to Lautrec: Perspectives on French Art")

Prints

• Giovanni-battista Piranesi (1918)

East Asia

• L'art bouddhique (1921, "Buddhist Art")
• Hokusai (1924)

External links

• Henri Focillon, 1881-1943 at classiques.uqac.ca
• http://www.jstor.org/pss/772442