Ernst Gombrich, 92; Scholar Wrote ‘The Story of Art’

Ernst Gombrich, 92, the scholar whose “The Story of Art” became one of the most famous and popular books on art ever published, died Saturday in London.

Published in 1950 and now in its 16th edition, “The Story of Art” has sold more than 6 million copies and has been translated into 23 languages.

Born in Vienna, Gombrich was educated at Vienna University and came to Britain in 1936. He joined the Warburg Institute, a center of art study, as a research assistant. He went on to serve as the institute’s director and professor of the history of the classical tradition at London University from 1959 until his retirement in 1976.

During World War II, he worked for the British Broadcasting Corp.’s radio monitoring service at Caversham, west of London. After the war, Gombrich continued writing the book that he had begun before the war, “The Story of Art.”

Gombrich wrote more than 20 books, including “Art and Illusion,” “The Sense of Order” and “Meditations on a Hobby Horse.” His latest project, “The Preference for the Primitive,” is due to be published next year.