Nikolaus Pevsner





Nikolaus Pevsner (January 30, 1902 - August 18, 1983) was a German-born
British historian of art and, especially, architecture.

The son of a Jewish merchant, Nikolaus Pevsner was born in Leipzig, Saxony.
He studied art history at the Universities of Leipzig, Munich, Berlin, and
Frankfurt/Main in Germany (PhD 1924), worked at the Dresden Gallery
(1924-28) and taught at Gšttingen University (1929Ð33). In 1934, he moved to
England to escape Nazism and taught at London, Oxford, and Cambridge
Universities.

He is best known for his 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The
Buildings of England (1951Ð74), one of the great achievements of
20th-century art scholarship.

Pevsner conceived and edited the Pelican History of Art series (1953Ð ) and
many individual volumes of which are regarded as classics.

He died in London.