Sizer, Theodore (1892-1967)
Dates
- Existence: 1892 - 1967
Biography
Theodore Sizer graduated from Harvard in 1916 with honors in the fine arts after only three years. During World War I he was a first lieutenant in the Army, though he did not serve overseas. As a second lieutenant after the war, Sizer sent his soldiers into the Philadelphia Museum of Art to foster their appreciation for the arts.
In 1922, Sizer came to CMA as curator of prints and drawings and curator of Oriental art. Under his direction a print study room was opened for rotating exhibitions and storing prints. He concurrently taught courses in art history at Western Reserve University, but the arrangement did not become permanent. Wishing to teach, he left CMA for an appointment as associate professor of art history and curator of painting and sculpture at Yale University in 1927. He was a professor of art at Yale from 1931 until he retired in 1957, and director of the art gallery from 1940 to 1947. In the latter post he transformed the gallery into a teaching institution.
During the Great Depression, Sizer directed the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project for southern Connecticut. He enlisted at the start of World War II, and became a member of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section. He served on the Allied Control Commission in Italy and later as a ranking officer in charge of the German Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in England. He achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Army for his efforts in saving art treasures. He left the Army by medical discharge in 1944. To recover his health, Sizer relinquished his duties as Yale’s gallery director, and with a Guggenheim Fellowship he took a year’s leave of absence from teaching. In 1945 he received the Order of the Crown of Italy for his role in recovering and preserving Italian works of art.
Sizer published numerous articles, twenty-seven of which appeared in the CMA Bulletin in 1922-27. He made his scholarly reputation with his writings on the painter John Trumbull (American, 1756-1843) in his later career at Yale. He published two books on Trumbull: "The Works of Colonel John Trumbull, Artist of the American Revolution" (1950) and "The Autobiography of Col. John Trumbull, Patriot-Artist, 1756-1843" (1953). He also published a number of journal articles on Trumbull. Sizer donated his papers compiled for his historical editing project on the Trumbull autobiography to the Archives of American Art in 1961.
Theodore Sizer was living in Bethany, Connecticut when he died in 1967 in West Haven.
Sources:
Ingalls Library clipping file.
Archives of American Art, finding aid for the Theodore Sizer Research Material on John Trumbull, 1790-1952 , https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/theodore-sizer-research-material-john-trumbull-8789.
-Biography by Anne Cuyler Salsich, November 2024