Henri Thomas Zerner, born 1939 May 25 in Suresnes, France, received his education in Paris and the United States studying at Columbia College, NY (1957-1958), the University of Paris (Licence es lettres, 1961), and l'Ecole Practique des Hautes Etudes (diploma, 1963). He received training in the print Room of the Bibliotheques Nationale, Paris, 1959-1960. Zerner returned to the United States in 1961 for a Focillon Fellowship at Yale University and received his Ph.D. from the University of Paris in 1969.
He served as an Assistant and Associate Professor at Brown University, 1966-1973. While at Brown, Zerner joined the staff of the Rhode Island School of Design, Museum Art in the fall of 1965 as the Acting Curator of Paintings and Graphic Arts. He served as a Visiting Curator at various intervals until 1971 when he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He expanded the Museum's collections purchasing more than 300 16th-20th century prints in 1966 including works by Perelle, Caracci, Gericault, Prud'hon, Guerin, and Jacques Villon. Zerner curated several exhibitions including Prints and Drawings with a Classical Reference (1965/1966), Venice in the Eighteenth Century: Prints and Drawings (1967), and James Jacques Tissot, 1836-1902: A Retrospective Exhibition (1968). See the Directors' Exhibition files.
Zerner joined the faculty of Harvard University in 1973 where he continues as Professor of History of Art and Architecture Emeritus.
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Henri Zerner papers, Rhode Island School of Design Archives.
The records focus on acquisitions, gifts, and researcher queries. With the exception of one file containing correspondence (1961-1964) of Director David Giles Carter, the files include predominantly the outgoing letters (1965-1967) of Zerner. Principal correspondents include Karl Faber, William Schab, Proute et fils, Colnaghi, Lucien Goldschmidt, (Mlle) Paule Cailac, Heim, Kornfeld und Klipstein, the Louvre, et al. Included in his files is an internal memo of then Chief Curator Stephen E. Ostrow detailing procedures for the creation and maintenance of curatorial files; and Zerner's resume.
Chronological
The records were transferred to the Archives by the Museum of Art, Office of the Registrar.
See the Museum Directors' Exhibition files, 1948-1983, particularly the series Exhibitions, 1966-1971, for extensive files on the Tissot exhibition.