1. Carl Tancred Borenius was a Finnish art historian working in England, who became the first professor of the history of art at University College London.
20 Facts About Tancred Borenius
1. 2.
Tancred Borenius was a prolific author, and recognised as one of the world's leading experts on Italian art of the early Renaissance.
3.
Tancred Borenius was the son of Finnish businessman and politician Carl Tancred Borenius.
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Tancred Borenius's first book was a version of his doctoral dissertation, Painters of Vincenza.
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Tancred Borenius married Anne-Marie Runeberg, a granddaughter of the Finnish poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg.
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Tancred Borenius soon met Roger Fry, to whom he became close.
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Tancred Borenius was appointed in 1914 as a lecturer at University College London after Fry left.
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Tancred Borenius was an advisor to the Earl of Harewood's art collection.
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Tancred Borenius helped to found the art magazine Apollo in 1925, and became one of its most active contributors.
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Tancred Borenius was actively involved with The Burlington Magazine, of which he became managing editor during World War II from 1940 to 1945.
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Tancred Borenius wrote numerous books on art, including English Primitives, The Iconography of St Thomas of Canterbury, Florentine Frescoes, English Painting in the XVIIIth Century and Rembrandt: Selected Paintings.
12.
Tancred Borenius knew Mannerheim, and during the Winter War he wrote a laudatory biography of the general.
13.
Tancred Borenius was made Secretary-General of the Polish Relief Fund in 1939, created to send aid to Poland and assist Polish refugees in Britain.
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Tancred Borenius had long cultivated links between Poland, Finland and Britain, having been vice-president of the Anglo-Polish society before the war.
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The writer John Harris asserts that Tancred Borenius was sent by the British MI6 to Geneva in January 1941.
16.
The diary of Ulrich von Hassell records the trip and Tancred Borenius' eventual meeting with Carl Jacob Burckhardt, a leader of the International Red Cross.
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The diary entry makes it clear that Tancred Borenius was there to impart the knowledge that Britain was still ready to talk peace "though not for much longer".
18.
Tancred Borenius was art advisor to the Lascelles family and had accompanied Queen Mary to Yorkshire when visiting her daughter Mary.
19.
Tancred Borenius had returned to London by mid-March 1941 and resumed his secretarial duties to the Anglo-Polish relief organisation.
20.
Tancred Borenius was admitted to St Andrew's Hospital, Northampton, in 1946 and transferred to Laverstock House, near Salisbury, where he died in September 1948.