Born: 1900 Königsberg, Kingdom of Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia)
Died: 1965 London, England
Year of Migration to the UK: 1933
Biography
Art Historian and art collector Alfred Scharf was born in Königsberg, Kingdom of Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia) on 25 November 1900. Scharf’s academic journey began at the Universities of Berlin, Munich, and Freiburg, where he studied art history, history of theatre, archaeology, and Far Eastern art. Under the guidance of Hans Jantzen, he completed his doctorate at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg in 1925, with a dissertation entitled Beiträge zur Geschichte des Bühnenbildes (Contributions to the History of Stage Design).
From 1925 to 1928, Scharf held several research assistant positions at Berlin's museums. His early work included assisting Jakob Rosenberg with the catalogue of Netherlandish masters in the Print Room, under Max J. Friedländer, and working with Wilhelm von Bode at the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum. After Bode’s death, he continued his work under Kurt Glaser at the Kunstbibliothek. Scharf's contributions during this period laid the foundation for his later scholarly achievements. In 1928, he became the editor of the art journal Der Cicerone, a role he held until the publication was sold to Bruckmann in Munich in 1930. During this time, Scharf was working on his influential book on Filippino Lippi. However, the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany disrupted his career, and due to mounting anti-Semitic legislation, Scharf was forced to abandon his habilitation on Filippino Lippi’s impact on 15th-century Italian painting. He immigrated to England in May 1933. Three years later, his name appeared in the 'Art History' section in the List of Displaced German Scholars, published in London in autumn 1936 by the Notgemeinschaft Deutscher Wisseenschaftler im Ausland (The Emergency Association of German Scholars in Exile), giving his marital and family status ('married, 1 child'), his education and professional posts to date, ending with the abbreviation, 'Temp', indicating that he was temporarily placed.
Upon arriving in England, Scharf began lecturing at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London during the winter of 1933–34, focusing on Dutch seventeenth-century drawings. He then transitioned to a career as a freelance writer and art expert. Scharf’s most renowned work was his book on Filippino Lippi, published in 1935 by Schroll in Vienna. His contributions to art history were not limited to this seminal work; he was prolific in his output, writing numerous articles for international journals including Der Cicerone, Jahrbuch der preussischen Kunstsammlungen, Pantheon, Apollo, The Architectural Review, and Art in America. His extensive contributions to The Burlington Magazine in the UK began in 1935 with an article on Rubens's Portraits of Charles V and Isabella and continued until his posthumous review of Philip Pouncey’s book on Lotto drawings in 1966. The journal also carried his obituary in the same year.
Scharf's scholarly enquiries spanned various fields of European art, with a particular focus on Italian Renaissance and Baroque styles. In addition to his book on Lippi, he wrote the introduction and catalogue for the Monsù Desiderio exhibition at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, USA in 1951. The following year, he compiled the catalogue of pictures and drawings from Sir Thomas Merton’s collection at Stubbings House near Maidenhead, Berkshire, which was privately printed. In 1962, he also prepared the introduction and catalogue for the collection of Italian paintings in the Bob Jones University Museum in Greenville, South Carolina.
Alfred Scharf died on 20 December 1965 in London, England. In 1993, two diagrams by Michelangelo were accepted by the British Museum in lieu of death duties and in memory of Scharf and his wife. The Scharfs’ collection of old masters drawings was offered at auction at Christie’s in 1991.
Related books
- ‘Dr Alfred Scharf’, The Burlington Magazine, No. 757, April 1966, pp. 201-202
- Alfred Scharf, ‘The Robinson Collection’, The Burlington Magazine, No. 666, September 1958, pp. 299-304
- Alfred Scharf, ‘Two Neglected Works by Filippino Lippi’, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, No. 412, July 1937, pp. 4-8
- Alfred Scharf, Two Neglected Works by Filippino Lippi, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, No. 412, July 1937, pp. 60, 65, 66
- Alfred Scharf, ‘The Exhibition of Rubens's Sketches at Brussels’, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, No. 415, October 1937, pp. 187-188
- List of Displaced German Scholars (Art History section), p. 10 (London: Notgemeinschaft Deutscher Wisseenschaftler im Ausland, 1936)
- Alfred Scharf, ‘Rubens's Portraits of Charles V and Isabella’, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, No. 387, June 1935, pp. 259-266
- Alfred Scharf, ‘Filippino Lippi’ (Wien: Schroll, 1935)
- Alfred Scharf, ‘Filippino Lippi und Piero di Cosimo’, Art in America, 1931, pp. 59-62
Related organisations
- Courtauld Institute (lecturer)
- University of Berlin (student)
- University of Freiburg (student)
- University of Munich (student)
Related web links
Ben Uri archive
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Alfred Scharf]
Ben Uri library
Publications related to [Alfred Scharf] in the Ben Uri Library