André Grabar

Who was André Grabar?

André Nicolaevitch Grabar was an historian of Romanesque art and the art of the Eastern Roman Empire. Born in Ukraine and educated in the Russian Empire, he spent his career in Bulgaria, France and the USA, and wrote all his papers in French. Grabar was one of the 20th-century founders of the study of the art and icons of the Eastern Roman Empire, adopting a synthetic approach embracing history, theology and interactions with the Islamic world.

His son Oleg Grabar also became an art historian, with a special interest in Islamic art.