Canada’s first department of art history was founded in 1935 as the Department of Fine Art. Its intellectual character was especially shaped by émigré scholars who brought traditions of connoisseurship and rigorous research methods to the University of Toronto. The department’s cosmopolitan origins, drawing particularly on British, American, and continental European intellectual traditions, have enabled it to maintain high academic standards while adapting to evolving institutional contexts. Over the decades, it has been an environment where scholars from varied backgrounds could collaborate in the pursuit of knowledge.
The story of the department began when the University of Toronto received a grant from the Carnegie Corporation to hire its first chairman. After an extensive six-year search, John Alford (1890–1960), a British lecturer from the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London, was appointed. During the first year, a “pass course” was offered; however, demand was great enough that an honours course was added the following year. In 1936, the Carnegie Corporation gave the University additional funds to hire an additional lecturer, Peter Brieger (1898–1983), a German refugee then working at the Courtauld.
Artist-educators were hired shortly thereafter to instruct studio courses, the first being led by Frederick S. Haines (1879–1960), then principal of the Ontario College of Art. In 1938, distinguished Canadian artist Charles Comfort (1900–1994) joined the Department, and, with Alford, designed a series of basic studio courses that were among the earliest of such programs offered in a Canadian university.
The Department was situated on the 3rd floor of the south-east corner of University College and consisted of two offices, a large reading room, and a storage area. In addition to the Carnegie “Arts Teaching Set” (comprised of books, prints, mounted photographs, and textile samples that the University had received in 1926), the Art Library was further established with a gift from prominent Toronto portrait painter J. W. L. Forster (1850–1938), who donated $2,000 to purchase additional books.
During the early years, the Department established excellent relationships with other departments such as Architecture, Archaeology, Anthropology, and Philosophy and with sister institutions including the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ontario College of Art, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. In 1946 the Department of Fine Art merged with the Department of Archaeology to become the Department of Art and Archaeology.
In 1957, the Department and its specialized Library moved to temporary quarters in the former residence of the University President at 86 Queen’s Park Crescent (the site of Toronto's old Planetarium) and finally to its present location on the 6th floor of the Sidney Smith Building which opened in 1961.
A Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree was instituted in 1964 and the PhD program in Fine Art History, the country’s first, was established in 1968. The Art Library’s collection development policy (focusing on exhibition, permanent museum holdings, and commercial gallery catalogues, photographs, and other materials to support the graduate curriculum) was formalized in 1970.
Alongside its tradition of research excellence, the department has consistently invested in pedagogy. From creating Ontario’s first high school art history curriculum to pioneering Ph.D. training in Canada to advancing the frontiers of experiential learning and offering some of North America’s largest art history courses, department faculty are demonstrating a sustained commitment to effective teaching.
Chairs of the Department of Art History
The department has been stewarded by a succession of distinguished leaders who have navigated the challenges of their eras while upholding a fundamental commitment to rigorous inquiry. Their collective efforts have built an institution where international research networks, effective teaching, and engagement with the canon of art history reinforce one another.
1935–45: John Alford
A British painter trained in art history at Cambridge, Alford was recruited from the Courtauld Institute as the department's founding chair. He established a sweeping survey course and designed a liberal arts curriculum situating art in relation to philosophy, history, literature, and sociology. He also forged early partnerships with the Department of Architecture.
1945–46: H. Reid MacCallum, interim
1946–47: Homer A. Thompson
A distinguished Canadian archaeologist, Thompson briefly headed the combined department when it merged with Fine Art.
1947–64: Peter H. Brieger
The department’s longest-serving chair, Brieger was a medievalist trained by Heinrich Wölfflin and Paul Frankl who came to Toronto as a refugee in 1936. He raised the department’s international scholarly credibility while fostering close intellectual bonds with students and colleagues, often hosting them at his home in a European tradition of mentorship. He oversaw the department’s relocation to Sidney Smith Hall in 1961 and helped establish the Universities Art Association of Canada, serving as its founding president. The Peter H. Brieger Memorial Lecture series honors his lasting impact.
1964–71: G. Stephen Vickers
A historian of Romanesque art who paused his doctoral studies at Harvard to serve in the Second World War, Vickers presided over expanding enrollments. He helped design Ontario's first high school art history curriculum and co-authored a high school textbook. In 1968, he oversaw the creation of Canada’s first PhD program in art history.
1971–78: Frederick Winter
Trained in classical archaeology, Winter became an expert on ancient Greek and Roman architecture. He initiated the department's summer program in Siena, establishing a tradition of international learning.
1978–1979: G. Stephen Vickers, interim
1979–82: Hans-Karl Lücke
An authority on Leon Battista Alberti and Renaissance architectural thought, Lücke had been captured by Canadian forces while serving as a German naval soldier in 1945. Over two decades later, he immigrated to Canada as a faculty member, demonstrating the department's capacity to transcend wartime ideological divisions.
1982–88: Robert P. Welsh
Welsh was an American-born expert on Piet Mondrian. He curated major exhibitions and wrote extensively on abstract art, showing how scholarly rigor could engage with living artistic traditions. As chair, he expanded the department's focus on modern and contemporary art while forging stronger links with museums. The Brieger Memorial Lectures were founded under his chairship.
1987–89: Joseph W. Shaw
A scholar of Aegean Bronze Age archaeology, Shaw co-discovered and directed the excavations at Kommos on Crete, a landmark Canadian field project.
1989–96: Philip L. Sohm
A specialist on the Italian Renaissance, Sohm supervised numerous graduate students who have become accomplished art historians. In 2009, he was appointed University Professor, the institution's highest academic rank.
(1992–93: Joseph W. Shaw, acting)
1996–2001: Margaret C. Miller
Miller is a specialist in classical archaeology and Greek-Persian cultural relations. She sustained the department’s engagement with material culture and ancient art.
2001–07: Marc Gotlieb
A scholar of French Salon painting and Romanticism, Gotlieb also served as editor-in-chief of the Art Bulletin, placing Toronto at the center of the discipline’s professional networks. He expanded the department’s coverage into non-Western fields.
(2004–05: Jill Caskey, acting)
2008–17: Elizabeth M. M. Legge
A Canadian art historian trained at the Courtauld Institute who specializes in Dada, Surrealism, and contemporary art, Legge oversaw significant growth and diversification in the department. She presided over the department’s separation from studio art instruction, a clarification of mission that proved essential for attracting students committed to historically contextualized study.
(2013–14: Ethan Matt Kavaler, acting)
2017–22: Carl Knappett
Knappett is scholar of archaeological networks in the Bronze Age Aegean. As chair, he developed a new digital lab and served as founding director of the Mediterranean Archaeology Collaborative Specialization. He oversaw the department’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, involving rapid adaptation of teaching and research while maintaining scholarly standards during a period of institutional crisis.
2022–24: Giancarla Periti, interim
A scholar of Italian Renaissance art, Periti implemented a new exchange program with French institutions and oversaw a department renovation.
2024–present: Joseph L. Clarke
An architectural historian, Clarke serves as chair at a time of continued enrollment growth.