BERENSON, Bernhard, American art critic: b. Vilna, Russia, 26 June 1865. He was brought to America as a child, received his education in Boston, and graduated from Har vard in 1887. He went abroad shortly 'after ward, having already decided on his life work. Since that tirne he has resided principally at Settigano near Florence, Italy, making journeys to the various parts of Europe where works of art needed for his studies are to be seen, and returning to America from time to time. He has been influential in obtaining many im portant works for American collections and is generally regarded as the most significant figure in art criticism that this country has produced. Indeed he is to be placed with the very front rank of European connoisseurs, especially in his own specialty of Italian art. An interest ing fact about his study of the great figures of the Florentine Renaissance is that it brought to him an early realization of the quality and importance of the modern French paintcrs Cezanne and Degas. Outside of articles in nearly all thc great reviews of Europe and America, his principal writings are 'Venetian Painters of the Renaissance' (1894) ; (Lorenzo Lotto, art Essay in Constructive Criticism' (1895-1901); (Florentine Painters of the Ren aissance' (1896) ; (Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance) (1897) ; (The Study and Crit icism of Italian Art' (1901; 2d series 1902) ; (The Drawings of the Florentine Painters' (1903) ; 'North Italian Painters of the Renais sance' (1907) ; (A Sienese Painter of the Fran ciscan Legend' (1909); (Catalogue of the Ital ian Paintings in the John G. Johnson Colkc
tion now at Philadelphia) (1913); (Venetian Painting in America: thc Fifteenth Century.' Mr. Bcrenson's method in the study of ancient works is largely a continuation of the one inaugurated by the Italian critic Giovanni Morelli. Mrs. Bernhard Berenson is also deeply interested in art criticism and has writ ten a guide book on the most important Italian pictures for students to see.