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Middeldorf (Ulrich Alexander) study photographs of sculpture and minor arts
83.P.3
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Contributing Institution: Special Collections
Title: Ulrich Alexander Middeldorf study photographs of sculpture and minor arts
Creator: Middeldorf, Ulrich, 1901-1983
Identifier/Call Number: 83.P.3
Physical Description: 37 Linear Feet(ca. 30,000 photoprints, clippings, offprints, and notes in 74 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1925-1980
Abstract: The study photographs of Ulrich Alexander Middeldorf, a German-American art historian, provide insight into how his work was
conceived and organized. His principal publications concerned Tuscan sculptors of the quattrocento as well as bronzes, medals,
and plaquettes. He was director of the Art Institute of Chicago, and, in Florence, served as director and librarian of the
Kunsthistorisches Institute and director of the Longhi Institute.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material: English.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was acquired from Middeldorf's widow, Gloria, in 1983 at the recommendation of Laurie and Peter Fusco.
Archive is arranged into four series: Series I. Artists; Series II. Regional schools; Series III. Subject files; Series IV.
Puzzles and fakes.
Ulrich Alexander Middeldorf (1901-1983) was a German-American art historian who specialized in the study of sculpture, medals,
and the minor and applied arts. He was director of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Fondazione Roberto Longhi, and then served
as the director and librarian of the Kusthistorisches Institut until his death in 1983.
In addition to his research specializations, Middeldorf had an abiding interest in Italian art, and a collector's passion
for the connection between art and fiction. He assembled a collection of fiction, much of it popular, paperback works, which
include characters or plot lines that relate to art (artists, art history, forgery, etc.). This collection of Art in Fiction
was acquired by the Getty Research Institute Library in 1984. Middeldorf's correspondence with Sybille Pantazzi about his
art in fiction collecting and other interests (1966-1983) may be seen in Special Collections Accession no. 950004.
Ulrich Alexander Middeldorf study photographs of sculpture and minor arts, undated, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles,
Accession no. 83.P.3.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa83p3
The collection was processed by Trisha Gessler, Amy Kennedy, and Florence Long in July 1992 and the finding aid prepared by
Tracey Schuster in August 1992. Petra Warren encoded the finding aid in January 2021.
Archival sleeving, foldering, and boxing of the collection took place in July 1992 in the Photo Study Collection. Some rearranging
of folders was done to improve consistency and clarity. The original order of the photographic files was recorded in a packing
list that arrived with the collection. The list is available in the Photo Study Collection's Research file. The files were
recategorized by the Getty Museum's Sculpture Department to facilitate scholarly access. Folder headings were copied from
the headings on the original packing list, and presumably, the original folders.
Photographs are not dated exactly, and were taken by a multitude of European museums and private collectors.
The names of the artists represented in the collection have been entered into the Getty Library's Photo Study database and
can be searched using the keyword "Middeldorf" on the database website: https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/photo/index.html.
Middeldorf's books are housed in the Getty Center Library; his notes, correspondence, pamphlets, and postcards can be found
in the Ulrich Alexander Middledorf papers (840024).
This photo archive was assembled by art historian Ulrich Alexander Middeldorf between 1925-1980, with an emphasis on Renaissance
sculpture, including bronzes. Italian works dominate the collection, but French and German works are also included. These
working files lend insight into how Middeldorf conceived and organized his scholarly work. His principal publications concerned
Tuscan sculptors of the quattrocento as well as bronzes, medals, and plaquettes.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Decorative arts
Sculpture, Italian
Sculpture, French
Sculpture, German
Sculpture, Renaissance
Black-and-white prints (photographs)
Clippings -- 20th century