Yale Bulletin and Calendar

September 17, 2004|Volume 33, Number 3

Anne Coffin Hanson

Manet expert Anne Coffin Hanson,
Yale's first woman professor

Anne Coffin Hanson, the John Hay Whitney Professor Emeritus of the History of Art and the first woman to be hired as a full professor at Yale, died on Sept. 1 at her home in New Haven after a long illness.

Professor Hanson was an authority on late 19th- and early 20th-century European art. Her dissertation, later published as a book, was on the 15th-century Italian sculptor Jacopo della Quercia, but it was for her groundbreaking work on the art of Edouard Manet that she became best known. Her book "Manet and the Modern Tradition" received the prestigious Morey Award for Scholarship in the History of Art in 1977.

In the 1980s she researched, wrote and lectured on Futurism, an avant-garde aesthetic movement that flourished in the early 20th century, work that culminated in a book and major exhibition, "Severini Futurista," that opened at the Yale University Art Gallery in 1995 and traveled to the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.

Professor Hanson initially trained as an artist, earning a B.F.A. in painting from the University of Southern California and a M.A. in creative art from the University of North Carolina.

She earned her Ph.D. in the history of art at Bryn Mawr College in 1962. She taught at a number of schools, including Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore College and New York University, and was director of the International Study Center of the Museum of Modern Art before joining the Yale faculty in 1970. She was appointed chairman -- the title she preferred -- of the Department of the History of Art in 1974, making her the first woman to head a department at Yale. She was named as the John Hay Whitney Professor in the History of Art in 1978. Professor Hanson was acting director of the Yale University Art Gallery from September of 1985 to January of 1987. She retired in 1992, returning in 1995 as acting curator of European and contemporary art.

"Anne was a generous and inspiring friend and colleague," comments Judith Colton, professor of the history of art. "She set high standards for herself and her students but also for the department, the Art Gallery, Yale and the profession as a whole."

Professor Hanson was a mentor to scores of art history students, particularly women, guiding them into influential positions in museums and universities throughout the country.

Professor Hanson wrote frequently for leading arts publications. Throughout her academic career, she was active in the College Art Association, serving on the board and numerous committees, and as president 19721974.

The list of honors Professor Hanson garnered throughout her long career include the Distinguished Teacher of Art History Award in 1990 from the College Art Association of America, a Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of North Carolina and a Kress Professorship at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., for 19921993.

She is survived by her companion and former husband, Bernard Hanson; three children, Anne Blaine Garson of Amherst, Massachusetts, James Garson of Houston, Texas, and Robert Garson of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

A memorial service honoring Professor Hanson will be held on Friday, Dec. 3, at 2 p.m. in Battell Chapel, corner of Elm and College streets. Contributions in her memory can be made to the Anne Coffin Hanson Fellowship Fund, College Art Association, 275 Seventh Ave., New York, 10001.

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IN MEMORIAM