Ursula Hoff
Encyclopedia
Dr Ursula Hoff, PhD
, AO, OBE
, (26 December 1909, London
, UK – 10 January 2005, Melbourne
, Australia
) – Australian scholar, academic, curator, writer, critic, and lecturer; Deputy Director of the National Gallery of Victoria
, Melbourne (1968–1973); London Adviser of the Felton Bequest (1975–83); author of numerous books, catalogues, articles, reviews, and scholarly publications on art.
to Hans Leopold Hoff, Hamburg-based German Jewish merchant, and his wife, née Thusnelde Margarethe (Tussi) Bulcke, of a German Lutheran upper middle-class family. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Hamburg
, where Ursula grew up and completed her primary and secondary education.
In 1930, Ursula Hoff commenced academic studies spread between the universities of Frankfurt, Cologne, and Munich; later the same year, she commenced studies at the University of Hamburg
; among her teachers were Erwin Panofsky
, Aby Warburg
, Ernst Cassirer
, and Fritz Saxl
.
Upon Adolf Hitler
’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany
and the introduction of anti-Jewish measures in January 1930, Ursula Hoff’s father, Leopold Hoff, left immediately for London; Ursula and her mother Tussi followed him shortly in July. Because she was born in England, Ursula was able to take up British citizenship, and due to her excellent English, she was quickly absorbed into British academic and cultural institutions. Over the next several years she worked with the curatorial staff at the Ashmolean Museum
in Oxford
; the British Museum
; at the Courtauld Institute of Art
. However, existing employment regulations in England barred her, and many other refugees, from permanent full-time positions.
She was also able to continue working on a doctoral thesis, Rembrandt und England, which investigated the influence of Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn in the eighteenth-century England, primarily through the appointment of Sir Godfrey Kneller to the court of William III of England
in 1688. From 1934 to 1935 returned to complete her thesis at the University of Hamburg
, where she was awarded a PhD.
From 1935 to 1939 Dr Hoff continued living in London and working in a variety of curatorial and research positions at the Royal Academy
; National Gallery
; and the British Museum
; and wrote for the Journal of the Warburg Institute
and the Burlington Magazine.
. In 1942, she was invited by Sir Daryl Lindsay
, the newly-appointed Director of the National Gallery of Victoria
, to deliver a series of lunch time lectures at Melbourne’s premier cultural institution. In 1943, Lindsay appointed Dr Hoff as the NGV’s Assistant Keeper of Prints and Drawings. She thus became the first woman and first tertiary qualified art historian to work within a state gallery in Australia. Dr Hoff remained at the NGV until her retirement in 1973, becoming Keeper of Prints and Drawings in 1949, and its Deputy Director in 1968.
During her tenure at the National Gallery of Victoria
, Dr Hoff pioneered the professional cataloguing of the NGV’s holdings; produced important and internationally-recognised publications and catalogues of its collections; curated numerous important exhibitions; published monographs on Charles Conder
, William Blake
, Rembrandt, and many others; secured important works by Paul Klee
, Marc Chagall
, Albrecht Dürer
, Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso
, Anthony van Dyck, Giovanni Batista Tiepolo, Salvador Dali
, and innumerable others for the NGV’s collection; became Founding Editor of the Art Bulletin of Victoria; and published extensively in Australian and International art journals.
An excellent source on Dr Ursula Hoff’s early years and her work at the National Gallery of Victoria is Sheridan Palmer’s Centre of the Periphery: Three European Art Historians in Melbourne (Nth Melbourne, Vic: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2008).
. Over her tenure as the London Advisor, she secured many outstanding works for the National Gallery of Victoria
, including Francisco de Goya, Robert Rauschenberg
, Bridget Riley
, François Boucher
, Canaletto
, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
, and an important suite of 16th and 17th Century Indian Mughal miniatures
.
She continued travelling extensively to research the NGV’s collection; assist with the loan exhibition of masterpieces from the State Hermitage
, Leningrad, USSR (now St Petersburg, Russia), which toured Australian galleries 1979-80; and continued contributing articles to Australian and International art journals.
During her time overseas, she also advised the Everard Studley Miller Bequest, the Art Foundation of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia
, National Gallery of Australia
, as well as a number of high-profile private collections, notably that of James Fairfax
.
Dr Ursula Hoff retired as London Advisor of the Felton Bequest in April 1983.
Important sources on Dr Hoff’s years as London Advisor of the Felton Bequest are her meticulously kept diaries, which had been donated to the University of Melbourne Archives
; and Colin Holden’s The Outsider: A Portrait of Ursula Hoff (Nth Melbourne, Vic: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2009).
in Australia. In 1947, she was invited by Professor Joseph Burke, the inaugural Herald Chair of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne, to join the teaching staff of his new department. In consequence of her appointment at the National Gallery of Victoria
, Dr Hoff taught part-time and in the evenings. Hoff’s teaching was firmly in the tradition of Erwin Panofsky
, revealing the meaning of disguised symbols. First-year students had to read Panofsky’s Studies in Iconology (1939) and Meaning in the Visual Arts (1955). She reinforced her lectures by conducting seminars for students in the NGV’s Print Room. Dr Hoff continued her dual position of the NGV curator and the University of Melbourne lecturer until her move to London in 1974.
Upon her return from London in 1984, Dr Hoff was invited to resume her teaching at the University of Melbourne, and in 1986 she was appointed Senior Associate, Department of Fine Arts, University of Melbourne.
The importance of Dr Hoff’s educational role in Australia is extensively discussed in Sheridan Palmer’s Centre of the Periphery, 2008.
. She was invited to continue lecturing at the University of Melbourne
, and in 1986 she was appointed Senior Associate of the University’s Department of Fine Arts.
She also continued researching the National Gallery of Victoria’s collections; produced the fifth edition of European Paintings before 1800 at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1995; published a monograph on Arthur Boyd
; contributed essays to catalogues of exhibitions by Charles Blackman
, Arthur Boyd
, and John Brack
; and wrote for Australian art journals.
Dr Ursula Hoff died in Heidelberg, Victoria
, on 10 January 2005. A private service was organized at St Peter’s, Eastern Hill, Melbourne, on 22 January, which was followed by a memorial service on 25 February at the Great Hall of the National Gallery of Victoria
.
a portrait of Ursula Hoff, which is then donated same year by the Felton Bequest to the National Gallery of Victoria
.
Dr Hoff was an active member of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
, serving as president in 1970 and vice-president in 1971.
Dr Hoff left the sum of AUD600,000 to fund an annual Ursula Hoff Internship, administered by the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne.
For complete list of publications, see http://www.ursulahoff.org/index.php/bibliography
A Tribute to Dr Ursula Hoff AO OBE. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2005
Holden, Colin. The Outsider: A Portrait of Ursula Hoff. Nth Melbourne, Vic: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2009.
Palmer, Sheridan. Centre of the Periphery: Three European Art Historians in Melbourne. Nth Melbourne, Vic: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2008.
Poynter, John. Mr Felton’s Bequests. Melbourne: Miegunyah, 2003.
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
, AO, OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, (26 December 1909, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, UK – 10 January 2005, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
) – Australian scholar, academic, curator, writer, critic, and lecturer; Deputy Director of the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
, Melbourne (1968–1973); London Adviser of the Felton Bequest (1975–83); author of numerous books, catalogues, articles, reviews, and scholarly publications on art.
Early Years
Dr Ursula Hoff was born on 26 December 1909 in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Hans Leopold Hoff, Hamburg-based German Jewish merchant, and his wife, née Thusnelde Margarethe (Tussi) Bulcke, of a German Lutheran upper middle-class family. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, where Ursula grew up and completed her primary and secondary education.
In 1930, Ursula Hoff commenced academic studies spread between the universities of Frankfurt, Cologne, and Munich; later the same year, she commenced studies at the University of Hamburg
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg is a university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by Wilhelm Stern and others. It grew out of the previous Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen and the Kolonialinstitut as well as the Akademisches Gymnasium. There are around 38,000 students as of the start of...
; among her teachers were Erwin Panofsky
Erwin Panofsky
Erwin Panofsky was a German art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime. Panofsky's work remains highly influential in the modern academic study of iconography...
, Aby Warburg
Aby Warburg
Abraham Moritz Warburg, known as Aby Warburg, was a German art historian and cultural theorist who founded a private Library for Cultural Studies, the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg, later Warburg Institute...
, Ernst Cassirer
Ernst Cassirer
Ernst Cassirer was a German philosopher. He was one of the major figures in the development of philosophical idealism in the first half of the 20th century...
, and Fritz Saxl
Fritz Saxl
Friedrich "Fritz" Saxl was the art historian who was the guiding light of the Warburg Institute, especially during the long mental breakdown of its founder, Aby Warburg, whom he succeeded as director.Saxl was instrumental in moving the Warburg Institute to safety in London at the outset of the...
.
Upon Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany
Chancellor of Germany
The Chancellor of Germany is, under the German 1949 constitution, the head of government of Germany...
and the introduction of anti-Jewish measures in January 1930, Ursula Hoff’s father, Leopold Hoff, left immediately for London; Ursula and her mother Tussi followed him shortly in July. Because she was born in England, Ursula was able to take up British citizenship, and due to her excellent English, she was quickly absorbed into British academic and cultural institutions. Over the next several years she worked with the curatorial staff at the Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
; the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
; at the Courtauld Institute of Art
Courtauld Institute of Art
The Courtauld Institute of Art is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art. The Courtauld is one of the premier centres for the teaching of art history in the world; it was the only History of Art department in the UK to be awarded a top...
. However, existing employment regulations in England barred her, and many other refugees, from permanent full-time positions.
She was also able to continue working on a doctoral thesis, Rembrandt und England, which investigated the influence of Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn in the eighteenth-century England, primarily through the appointment of Sir Godfrey Kneller to the court of William III of England
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
in 1688. From 1934 to 1935 returned to complete her thesis at the University of Hamburg
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg is a university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by Wilhelm Stern and others. It grew out of the previous Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen and the Kolonialinstitut as well as the Akademisches Gymnasium. There are around 38,000 students as of the start of...
, where she was awarded a PhD.
From 1935 to 1939 Dr Hoff continued living in London and working in a variety of curatorial and research positions at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
; National Gallery
National gallery
The National Gallery is an art gallery on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom.National Gallery may also refer to:*Armenia: National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan*Australia:**National Gallery of Australia, Canberra...
; and the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
; and wrote for the Journal of the Warburg Institute
Warburg Institute
The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of the influence of classical antiquity on all aspects of European civilisation.-History:The Institute was founded by...
and the Burlington Magazine.
National Gallery of Victoria
In December 1939, Dr Hoff arrived in Australia to take up a position of Secretary at the University Women’s College, University of MelbourneUniversity of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
. In 1942, she was invited by Sir Daryl Lindsay
Daryl Lindsay
Sir Ernest Daryl Lindsay was an Australian artist and member of the creative Lindsay family.-Early life:...
, the newly-appointed Director of the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
, to deliver a series of lunch time lectures at Melbourne’s premier cultural institution. In 1943, Lindsay appointed Dr Hoff as the NGV’s Assistant Keeper of Prints and Drawings. She thus became the first woman and first tertiary qualified art historian to work within a state gallery in Australia. Dr Hoff remained at the NGV until her retirement in 1973, becoming Keeper of Prints and Drawings in 1949, and its Deputy Director in 1968.
During her tenure at the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
, Dr Hoff pioneered the professional cataloguing of the NGV’s holdings; produced important and internationally-recognised publications and catalogues of its collections; curated numerous important exhibitions; published monographs on Charles Conder
Charles Conder
Charles Edward Conder was an English-born painter, lithographer and designer. He emigrated to Australia and was a key figure in the Heidelberg School, arguably the beginning of a distinctively Australian tradition in Western art.-Early life:Conder was born in Tottenham, Middlesex, the second son,...
, William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
, Rembrandt, and many others; secured important works by Paul Klee
Paul Klee
Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
, Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
, Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
, Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Anthony van Dyck, Giovanni Batista Tiepolo, Salvador Dali
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
, and innumerable others for the NGV’s collection; became Founding Editor of the Art Bulletin of Victoria; and published extensively in Australian and International art journals.
An excellent source on Dr Ursula Hoff’s early years and her work at the National Gallery of Victoria is Sheridan Palmer’s Centre of the Periphery: Three European Art Historians in Melbourne (Nth Melbourne, Vic: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2008).
London Advisor to the Felton Bequest
In 1975, Dr Ursula Hoff was appointed Advisor to the Felton Bequest and moved to LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Over her tenure as the London Advisor, she secured many outstanding works for the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
, including Francisco de Goya, Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...
, Bridget Riley
Bridget Riley
Bridget Louise Riley CH CBE is an English painter who is one of the foremost proponents of Op art.-Early life:...
, François Boucher
François Boucher
François Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
, Canaletto
Canaletto
Giovanni Antonio Canal better known as Canaletto , was a Venetian painter famous for his landscapes, or vedute, of Venice. He was also an important printmaker in etching.- Early career :...
, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Renoir
-People with the surname Renoir :* Pierre-Auguste Renoir , French painter* Pierre Renoir , French actor and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir* Jean Renoir , French film director and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir...
, and an important suite of 16th and 17th Century Indian Mughal miniatures
Mughal painting
Mughal painting is a particular style of South Asian painting, generally confined to miniatures either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums, which emerged from Persian miniature painting, with Indian Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist influences, and developed largely in the court...
.
She continued travelling extensively to research the NGV’s collection; assist with the loan exhibition of masterpieces from the State Hermitage
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
, Leningrad, USSR (now St Petersburg, Russia), which toured Australian galleries 1979-80; and continued contributing articles to Australian and International art journals.
During her time overseas, she also advised the Everard Studley Miller Bequest, the Art Foundation of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia
Art Gallery of South Australia
The Art Gallery of South Australia , located on the cultural boulevard of North Terrace in Adelaide, is the premier visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of over 35,000 works of art, making it, after the National Gallery of Victoria, the largest state...
, National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...
, as well as a number of high-profile private collections, notably that of James Fairfax
James Fairfax
James Oswald Fairfax, AC , Australian company director and arts patron, was born in Sydney, eldest son of Sir Warwick Oswald Fairfax....
.
Dr Ursula Hoff retired as London Advisor of the Felton Bequest in April 1983.
Important sources on Dr Hoff’s years as London Advisor of the Felton Bequest are her meticulously kept diaries, which had been donated to the University of Melbourne Archives
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
; and Colin Holden’s The Outsider: A Portrait of Ursula Hoff (Nth Melbourne, Vic: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2009).
Educational Role
Dr Ursula Hoff also played an important role in education of art historyArt 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...
in Australia. In 1947, she was invited by Professor Joseph Burke, the inaugural Herald Chair of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne, to join the teaching staff of his new department. In consequence of her appointment at the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
, Dr Hoff taught part-time and in the evenings. Hoff’s teaching was firmly in the tradition of Erwin Panofsky
Erwin Panofsky
Erwin Panofsky was a German art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime. Panofsky's work remains highly influential in the modern academic study of iconography...
, revealing the meaning of disguised symbols. First-year students had to read Panofsky’s Studies in Iconology (1939) and Meaning in the Visual Arts (1955). She reinforced her lectures by conducting seminars for students in the NGV’s Print Room. Dr Hoff continued her dual position of the NGV curator and the University of Melbourne lecturer until her move to London in 1974.
Upon her return from London in 1984, Dr Hoff was invited to resume her teaching at the University of Melbourne, and in 1986 she was appointed Senior Associate, Department of Fine Arts, University of Melbourne.
The importance of Dr Hoff’s educational role in Australia is extensively discussed in Sheridan Palmer’s Centre of the Periphery, 2008.
Later Years
After retiring as London Advisor of the Felton Bequest, Dr Ursula Hoff returned to Australia in 1984 and settled in Carlton, VictoriaCarlton, Victoria
Carlton is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Melbourne...
. She was invited to continue lecturing at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
, and in 1986 she was appointed Senior Associate of the University’s Department of Fine Arts.
She also continued researching the National Gallery of Victoria’s collections; produced the fifth edition of European Paintings before 1800 at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1995; published a monograph on Arthur Boyd
Arthur Boyd
Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd, AC, OBE was one of the leading Australian painters of the late 20th Century. A member of the prominent Boyd artistic dynasty in Australia, his relatives included painters, sculptors, architects or other arts professionals. His sister Mary Boyd married John Perceval,...
; contributed essays to catalogues of exhibitions by Charles Blackman
Charles Blackman
Charles Blackman is one of the best known Australian artists still living today, especially for the famous Schoolgirl and Alice in Wonderland series of the 1950s...
, Arthur Boyd
Arthur Boyd
Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd, AC, OBE was one of the leading Australian painters of the late 20th Century. A member of the prominent Boyd artistic dynasty in Australia, his relatives included painters, sculptors, architects or other arts professionals. His sister Mary Boyd married John Perceval,...
, and John Brack
John Brack
John Brack was an Australian painter, and a member of the Antipodeans group.-Life:...
; and wrote for Australian art journals.
Dr Ursula Hoff died in Heidelberg, Victoria
Heidelberg, Victoria
Heidelberg is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 11 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Banyule....
, on 10 January 2005. A private service was organized at St Peter’s, Eastern Hill, Melbourne, on 22 January, which was followed by a memorial service on 25 February at the Great Hall of the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
.
Recognition
- Awarded PhD (Hamburg), LLD, DLit (Monash), DLitt (honoris causa)(La Trobe)
- Scholarship from Dutch Ministry of Education to Netherlands Institute of Art History 1963
- Britannica Australia Award 1966
- Appointed Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(OBE) in 1970 - Awarded Order of AustraliaOrder of AustraliaThe Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(AO) in 1985
Further Information
Upon her retirement as the London Advisor, the Felton Bequest commissioned from John BrackJohn Brack
John Brack was an Australian painter, and a member of the Antipodeans group.-Life:...
a portrait of Ursula Hoff, which is then donated same year by the Felton Bequest to the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
.
Dr Hoff was an active member of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
Australian Academy of the Humanities
The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia...
, serving as president in 1970 and vice-president in 1971.
Dr Hoff left the sum of AUD600,000 to fund an annual Ursula Hoff Internship, administered by the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne.
Publications
- Rembrandt and England (private printing) Hamburg 1935
- Charles I, Patron of the Arts Collins, London 1942
- Masterpieces of the National Gallery of Victoria Cheshires, Melbourne 1949
- Charles Conder, His Australian Years National Gallery Society, Melbourne 1961
- The National Gallery of Victoria Thames and Hudson, London 1973? ISBN 0500201331
- European Paintings Before 1800 National Gallery Society, Melbourne
For complete list of publications, see http://www.ursulahoff.org/index.php/bibliography
Sources
http://www.ursulahoff.org/A Tribute to Dr Ursula Hoff AO OBE. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2005
Holden, Colin. The Outsider: A Portrait of Ursula Hoff. Nth Melbourne, Vic: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2009.
Palmer, Sheridan. Centre of the Periphery: Three European Art Historians in Melbourne. Nth Melbourne, Vic: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2008.
Poynter, John. Mr Felton’s Bequests. Melbourne: Miegunyah, 2003.