Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

Kramrisch, Stella, 1898-1993 print view role Collector Scholar/Critic/Expert dates 1898-1993 city Philadelphia state PA other cities Vienna, Austria; Bengal, India; Calcutta, India; London, United Kingdom; New York, NY; sex F historical notes As a scholar, curator, collector and prolific writer, Stella Kramrisch devoted more than 70 years to the study and appreciation of Indian art. Born in Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic), Kramrisch attended the University of Vienna, where she studied art history and Sanskrit. With the completion of her dissertation on early Indian Buddhist sculpture, she received her doctoral degree in 1919 and began lecturing at Oxford University. She arrived in India in 1921 upon invitation to teach at a university in what is now West Bengal. She remained there until 1923 when she became the first professor of Indian art at the University of Calcutta. From 1937 to 1940, she spent part of each year in London lecturing at the Courtlauld Institute. Following a research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) in the late 1940’s, Kramrisch settled permanently in the United States in 1950 to join Penn’s faculty as Professor of South Asian Art, teaching there until 1969. In 1954, she also took on the role of curator of Indian art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and served as such until 1972. From 1972 until her death in 1993, Kramrisch oversaw the department as Curator Emeritus. Undaunted by the academic and curatorial demands made of her in Philadelphia, Kramrisch also accepted an appointment at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, and taught as a Professor of Indian Art from 1964 to 1982. As a scholarly collector, Kramrisch acquired well over a thousand paintings, sculptures and decorative arts representing two thousand years of South Asia’s artistic production, most of which she donated or bequeathed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her interests as a scholar overlap with the strengths of her collection including stone sculpture from the 8th-12th century temples of northern and western India, the vernacular arts of eastern India, textiles, Rajput paintings, and Himalayan (especially Nepalese) art. For her many achievements, Kramrisch received worldwide recognition, including India’s highest civilian honor of Padma Bhushan in 1982. decades of activity 1920-1930 1930-1940 1940-1950 1950-1960 1960-1970 1970-1980 1980-1990 updated 03/22/2024 12:09:32 bibliographic search Search Frick Art Reference Library Catalog Search Photoarchive Search Worldcat Search Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) Search Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) Search Wikidata Entry Archives/Repository Collection Title Collection Details Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives Stella Kramrisch Papers see details... University of Texas, Austin Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center Nancy Wilson Ross Papers, 1913-1986 see details... University of Pennsylvania, University Archives and Records Center North Arcade, Franklin Field W. Norman (William Norman) Brown, 1892-1975, Papers, 1912-1975 see details... Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives Henri Gabriel Marceau Director Records, 1955-1964 see details... Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives Indian Art Department Records, 1896?-1999, n.d. see details... Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives Evan H. Turner Records, 1964-1978 see details... «  back