Richard Ettinghausen (February 5, 1906 – April 2, 1979)[1] was a German-American historian ofIslamic art and chiefcurator of theFreer Gallery.
Ettinghausen was born inFrankfurt am Main,Germany. There, he would receive hisPh.D. from theUniversity of Frankfurt in 1931 inIslamic history andart history.[2]
From 1929 to 1931, he worked on the Islamic collection of theKaiser Friedrich Museum inBerlin under the direction ofErnst Kühnel and the collector/archaeologistFriedrich Sarre.[2]
In 1934, due to the rise of theNazis, he immigrated first toGreat Britain and then to theUnited States, where he joined the staff ofArthur Upham Pope at the Institute of Persian Art and Archaeology inNew York. From 1937 to 1938, he taught his first class at the Institute of Fine Art,New York University. In 1938 he was appointed an associate professor at theUniversity of Michigan.[2]
In 1944, Ettinghausen left Michigan to join the Freer Gallery.[2] The following year he married theart historianElisabeth Sgalitzer. He also lectured atPrinceton University. In 1961 he was appointed chief curator of the Freer. During his tenure at the Freer, he built the collection into one of the finest collections on Islamic art in the world. He oversaw both the Ars Islamica and Ars Orientalis, while at Freer.[3] He wrote a book "Arab Painting: Treasures of Asia, Vol IV" published by Editions d'Art Albert Skira, Geneva in 1962.[4]
In 1966, Ettinghausen left the Freer to becomeHagop Kevorkian Professor of Islamic Art at the Institute of Fine Art,New York University.[3] Together with the Middle East historian R. Bayly Winder he founded theKevorkian Center the same year at NYU.
Three years later, he also became the Consultative Chairman of the Islamic Department of theMetropolitan Museum of Art. At the Metropolitan, he was instrumental in installing the galleries to their sensitive arrangement. His text, withOleg Grabar,The Art and Architecture of Islam 650-1250 in thePelican History of Art series, appeared posthumously in 1987.
Ettinghausen was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1974 and theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1976.[5][6] That same year, he was awarded thePour le Merite by the German government.[2]
Both aJew and an avidIslamicist, his ties toIsrael found expression in his promotion of the establishment of amuseum for Islamic art inJerusalem.
Ettinghausen died of cancer inMercer, New Jersey on 2 April 1979.[2] The library in the Kevorkian Center is named in his honor.
After his death,Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi acquired Ettinghausen's private library. These works were then donated to the newly built House of Wisdom inSharjah.[7]
