Frederick B. Deknatel

Frederick B. Deknatel

Boardman Professor of Fine Arts, 1942-1972

Frederick Deknatel (March 9, 1905 - November 3, 1973) was a member of Harvard's Department of Fine Arts for forty years. Although his graduate training was in the field of medieval art and his Ph.D. dissertation on 13th century Gothic sculpture of the cathedrals of Burgos and León, increasingly he became interested in the art of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1940 Deknatel was appointed to tenure on the Harvard faculty as an associate professor. During the Second World War, from 1942 to 1945, he served as Assistant Dean of the College. In 1946 he received full professor's rank. He served a five-year term as chairman of the Department of Fine Arts, from 1944 to 1949, and during this critical period played a major role in the reconstruction of the department following the War. His service on the Board of Directors of the College Art Association culminated in his election to the presidency of that organization for 1947-48. In 1950, in recognition of his publication of a major work on the Norwegian Post-Impressionist painter Edvard Munch, the Norwegian government awarded Deknatel the Knight's Cross of the Order of St. Olaf, first class. At Harvard the merit of his service was Confirmed by his appointment in 1953 to the senior endowed chair in his department, the William Dorr Boardman professorship. A later academic honor was the L.H.D. conferred by Alfred University in 1966.