Levitine, George

George Levitine (1916-1989), Professor Emeritus and former Head of the Art Department at the University of Maryland, Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres, member of the Institute for Advanced Study (1977-78), was a scholar, teacher, and humanist.

He was born in Kharkow, Ukraine, in 1916. Due to the Russian Revolution, in 1924 his family immigrated to France. He received a Baccalaurat degree from the Lyce Louis-le-Grand in Paris in 1936 and a P.C.B. (pre-med) at the Universit de Paris in 1938. After completing his first year at the Ecole de Mdecine, his studies were interrupted by World War II.

After serving in the French army and the American army (OSS), he resumed his studies in the United States. He received a M.A. in Art History from Boston University in 1946 and a Ph.D. in Art History from Harvard University in 1952. Dr. Levitine taught at Boston University from 1948 to 1964 and also served on the faculty of the Harvard Extension Program from 1957 to 1964.

In 1964, Dr. Levitine joined the University of Maryland as a full professor and Head of the Art Department, a department of three or four which grew to thirty seven faculty members during his tenure. Under Dr. Levitine's leadership, the University of Maryland's art history and art programs gained national recognition.

Retiring as Head of the department in 1978 to devote time to research and teaching, he taught until being named Professor Emeritus and Director of Academic Program Development with European Academic Institutions by the university in 1986.

Dr. Levitine's publications include numerous articles on Goya, emblems, and French art from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. He gained a reputation as an authority on eighteenth-century French art. In 1987 he organized and edited the papers of a monumental symposium "Culture and Revolution: Cultural Ramifications of the French Revolution."

Emblematic devices and their significance were a major area of research for Dr. Levitine, and in 1987 the University sponsored a symposium, chaired by Marie Spiro and Doug Farquhar and entitled "The Protean Life of Emblems after the Sixteenth Century," in his honor. Papers from this symposium appeared in an issue of Emblematica dedicated to him.

At the time of his death in 1989, the University of Maryland established the George Levitine Art History Endowment to support research and study by faculty and students. The keynote speech at the annual Middle Atlantic Symposium in the History of Art has also been named in his honor.

Note: This biographical note was taken from the Art and Architecture Library website

From the guide to the George Levitine Book collection, 1564-1888 and undated, 1700-1807, (Literature and Rare Books)