BROWN, Percy. Birmingham 1872 (or Calcutta 22.11.1871) — Srinagar 22.3.1955. British Art Historian in India. Son of Joseph Henry Samsum Brown and Annie Elizabeth Morgan. Educated at King Edward VI Grammar School in Birmingham, then at Royal College of Art in London. Excavated for the Egypt Exploration Fund in Upper…
BOSCH, Frederik (Fritz) David Kan. Potchefstroom, Transvaal 17.6.1887 — Leiden 20.7.1968. Dutch Indologist and Indonesian Scholar. Professor in Leiden. Born in South Africa, son of Hendrik Bosch (1859–1902) and Judith Kan (1862–1889), after his mother’s death came to live with his two aunts in Amsterdam and went to school there.…
BONER, Alice. Legnano, Lombardy 22.7.1889 — Zürich 13.4.1981. Swiss Artist (Sculptor) and Art Historian of India. Born in Italy of Swiss-English parents, engineer Georg Boner and Alice Kathrine Brown. School in Italy, the family moved back to Switzerland only in 1911. Received training in sculpture and painting in Basel, Brussels…
BLOCHET, Gabriel Joseph Edgar. Bourges (Cher) 12.12.1870 — Paris 5.9.1937. French Oriental (Arabic and Iranian) Scholar and Historian of Religions. Son of a cavalry officer. After studies in Paris (i.al. ancient Iranian under Darmesteter at É.P.H.É. and Arabic (diploma), Persian, Turkish and Urdu at É.L.O.V.), from 1895 Assistant, then Librarian…
BIRDWOOD, George Christopher Molesworth. Belgaum, India 8.12.1832 — Ealing, London 28.6.1917. Sir. British Physician and Botanist in India interested in Science and in Colonial History. Son of General Christopher Birdwood (1807–1882) of Indian Army and Lydia Juliana Taylor. The family came from Plymouth, and he was educated at Plymouth Grammar…
BINYON, Laurence Robert. Lancaster 10.8.1869 — Reading, Berkshire 10.3.1943. British Art Historian, Dramatist and Poet. Son of Frederick Binyon, a clergyman, and Mary Dockray. Educated at St.Paul’s School in London, studied classics at Trinity College, Oxford (graduated 1893). From 1893 worked in Printed Books Dept. of British Museum, in 1915-33…
BERNET KEMPERS, August Johan. ’s-Hertogenbosch 7.10.1906 — Arnhem 2.5.1992. Dutch Art Historian and South-East Asian Scholar, long time in Indonesia. Son of Karel Jan Willem Bernet Kempers, a notary, and Anna den Doesschate. After school in Middelburg studies of Indo-Iranian and Indonesian from 1926 at Leiden, Ph.D. 1933 (under Krom).…
BÉNISTI (Monié-Bénisti, also Bénisti-Monié, née Sarfati), Mireille. Algier 10.10.1909 — 11.12. 1993. French Art Historian (Buddhist and Khmer Art). Born in Algeria came early to Paris. Suffered of ill health, but in November 1943 she joined the Comité Français de la Liberation Nationale in Algier, and worked after the war…
BAZIN-FOUCHER, Émile Eugénie Marguerite Virginie (“Éna”). Chesnay (Yvelines) 7.10.1889 — 30.1.1952. French Art Historian. Originally studied English at Sorbonne, then 1915-18 Indology at E.P.H.E. under S. Lévi. She married —> A. Foucher (1865–1952) in 1919 in Colombo, on way to India. Some say that she had apparently met him at…
BAKTAY, Ervin (Erwin, to 1925 Baktay-Gottesmann). Dunaharaszti 24.6.1890 — Budapest 7.5.1963 (when 73). Hungarian Art Historian. Son of Raoul Gottesmann (d. 1905) and Antonia Levys-Martinfalvy. Originally intended to become a painter, he studied in Munich under Simon Hollósy, whose brother Joszef was one of the first in Hungary to be…