Wayne craven biography

E. Wayne Craven, Jr., age 89, of Newark, DE passed away on Thursday, May 7, 2020.

Born in Illinois on December 7, 1930, he was the son of the late Ernest Wayne and Vera Viola (Cline) Craven, Sr.

Wayne met his future wife at The John Herron Art School in Indianapolis, IN, which is now a part of Indiana University. They were married in 1953 in Rochester and that fall moved to Bloomington, IN, to attend Indiana University where he received his Bachelors and Masters degrees.

In 1957, Wayne and his wife moved to New York City where he attended Columbia University and received his PhD in art history. Lorna and Wayne especially reveled in New York’s cultural offerings of music, art and the theatre.

The Cravens next move was to Massachusetts where Wayne taught at a woman’s college just south of Boston.

Dr. and Mrs. Craven came to Delaware in the fall of 1960 when he was appointed The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Delaware. During his time at University of Delaware, Wayne was received an honorary degree and authored numerous books including “Sculpture in America”, “Colonial American Portraiture”, “Gilded Mansions”, and “Marble Halls”. Among other accomplishments, he was honored to be guest curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC in 1976 and was guest curator at the request of President Lyndon B. Johnson, sculpture section, “The Creative American”, held at The White House in 1965.  

In addition to his parents, Wayne was preceded in death by his wife, Lorna Rose (Breseke) Craven. He is survived by his sister, Rebecca A. Marino (Francis) of Elkhart, IN; nieces, Rachel Gosc and Sarah Marino; nephew, Frank Ernest Marino; great nephew, Max Gosc; great nieces, Megan Gosc, Faythe Mishler and Novaleigh Marino; and sisters-in-law, June Goodwin and Nancy Breseke.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a memorial service in Newark will be announced at a later date.

A noted authority on 19th century American art, and a pioneer scholar in the field, Dr. Craven published numerous books and articles during his long career and received many professional honors.

At UD, he held the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Chair in Art History, received Excellence in Teaching awards and the Francis Alison Faculty Award, the University’s highest faculty honor, and in 2008 was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. He served as coordinator of UD’s Winterthur Program in Early American Culture (now the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture) and as chair of the Delaware State Arts Council.

"While I never had the pleasure of meeting Wayne in person, I frequently heard faculty and alumni speak about him,” John A. Pelesko, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said. “It's clear that his impact on his colleagues and students—and on the University's prominence in art history—was deep and meaningful. He will surely be missed."

Dr. Craven was an editor and consultant to a variety of journals and institutions, ranging from American Art Journal to the National Portrait Gallery and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. In 1995, he was elected to the prestigious College of Fellows of the Philadelphia Athenaeum.

His extensive publications include two books that have been described as bibles in their fields. His 1968 book Sculpture in America, which grew out of an exhibition he curated at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, is considered the most thorough survey of American sculpture to date and is used extensively as a textbook. His American Art: History and Culture is a classroom standard and has been acclaimed by scholars and general readers for the imaginative breadth of its approach and the clarity of its text.

“Wayne Craven had an immeasurable impact on the field of American art history and material culture,” said Wendy Bellion, the Sewell C. Biggs Chair in American A

American art historian and educator (1930–2020)

Ernest Wayne Craven, Jr. (December 7, 1930 – May 7, 2020) was an American art historian and educator. A scholar of 19th-century American art, particularly sculpture, he was Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Professor of Art History Emeritus at the University of Delaware.

Life and career

Craven was born in Illinois to Ernest Sr. and Vera Viola Cline. He met is future wife Lorna Rose Breseke at the John Herron Art Institute and the couple married in 1953. He then received a Bachelor of Arts in 1955 and a Master of Arts in 1957 from Indiana University Bloomington. He continued his studies at Columbia University to earn a doctor of philosophy in Art History in 1963. His doctoral dissertation was on the Auxerre Cathedral and was titled "The Sculptures of the South Tower Base of the Cathedral of Auxerre: A Rémois Shop in Burgundy," supervised by Robert Branner and Otto Brendel. Louis Grodecki and Willibald Sauerländer also reviewed the text.

In 1960, while a student at Columbia, Craven was named Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Delaware, and six years later, formally began the art history department there with William Innes Homer. Craven spent the rest of his career at Delaware, rising to Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Professor Emeritus upon retirement.

In 2008, Craven was the recipient of a Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Delaware.

Craven died at his home in Newark, Delaware, on May 7, 2020, as a result of heart failure stemming from post COVID-19 complications. He was 89 years old.

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