WELLESZ, Emmy (née Emilia Franziska Stross) .Vienna 8.1.1889 — Vienna 13.6.1987. Austrian Art Historian. Daughter of Ludwig Stross, a cloth dealer, and Vilma Propper, a Jewish family. From 1907 studied art history at Vienna. Married 1908 Egon Wellesz (1885–1974), a composer and musicologist. The birth of two daughters (1909, 1912) interrupted her studies, which she resumed in 1918. In 1916 adopted Christianity. Ph.D. 1921 Vienna (under Strzygowski). They were living in Vienna until 1938, when they migrated to the U.K. where the husband became Lecturer (1943) and Reader (1948) at Oxford teaching music history. She assisted her husband, but also continued her own studies, and he followed keenly his wife’s work.

Publications: Diss 1921 publ. as Die buddhistische Kunst von Gandhâra. 10 p. 20 pl. Bibl. der Kunstgesch. 73. Lp. 1924.

– “Buddhistische Kunst in Baktrien und Gandhâra”, J. Strzygowski, Kunde, Wesen, Entwicklung, Eine Einführung. Vienna 1922, 137-151.

– “Ein indisches Blatt islamischer Miniaturmalerei”, Josef-Strzygowski-Festschrift. Klagenfurt 1932, 178-182; a few further writings.

– Akbar’s religious thought reflected in Mogul painting. 9+47 p. 40 pl. Ethical and religious classics of East and West. L. 1952.

Sources: *D. Duda, WZKM 79, 1989, 339-342 & 83, 1993, 247 with bibliography; K. Johns, “The long shadow of Emmy Wellesz”, Journal of Art Historiography 19, 2018, 1-17; German Wikipedia; diss. not in Janert.