Michael Levey obit

Sir Michael Levey, a prolific and wide-ranging art historian who presided over the expansion of the National Gallery in London as its director from 1973 through 1986, and who acquired important paintings by Caravaggio, David and Monet for its collection, died on Sunday. He was 81 and lived in Louth, Lincolnshire, England. . .

Mr. Levey, who spent his entire career at the National Gallery, was a writer whose beautifully shaped phrases made his studies for the general reader, like his "History of Western Art" (1968) and "High Renaissance" (1975), a pleasure to read and enlivened specialist works like "Giambattista Tiepolo: His Life and Art" (1987) and his catalogs of Italian paintings in the Queen's collection.

Posted by David on January 12, 2009 2:25 PM