{{Short description|British art historian, Islamicist and author}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2016}} {{Use British English|date=March 2016}} {{Infobox person |name = Basil Gray |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CB|CBE|FBA|size=100%}} |image = |caption = |birth_date = 1904 |birth_place = Kensington, London, England |death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1989|06|10|1904||}}<ref>[https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/1438/105p439.pdf Basil Gray (1904–1989)]. ''Proceedings of the British Academy''. Retrieved 14 Oct 2024.</ref> |death_place = Oxford, England |other_names = |known_for = Art historian |occupation = Head of British Museum’s Oriental department }} '''Basil Gray''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|commas=on|CB|CBE|FBA|size=100%}} (1904–1989), was an English art historian, Islamicist, author, and the head of the British Museum's Oriental department.
==Early life== Basil Gray was born in 1904 at Kensington, the son to Charles Gray and Florence Elworthy Cowell. His father was a Royal Army Medical Corps surgeon. He attended Bradfield College and in the 1920s studied at New College, Oxford.<ref name=DictArt>[http://www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/grayb.htm Gray, Basil] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306145901/https://dictionaryofarthistorians.org/grayb.htm |date=6 March 2016 }}, ''Dictionary of Art Historians'', Art History Webmasters Association. Retrieved 10 March 2016</ref>
==Career== Following graduation in 1927 Gray travelled to the Schönbrunn Palace and Osterreichisches Museum in Vienna to view Mughal painting.<ref name=Jstor/> While in Vienna he studied under Josef Strzygowski, and developed a friendship with Otto Demus, art historian and Byzantinist.<ref name=DictArt/> Following this he worked with art historian David Talbot Rice at the British Academy excavations of the palace of the Byzantine emperors in Constantinople.<ref name=Jstor>Pinder-Wilson Ralph, (1989, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4299812?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Obituary - Basil Gray 1904-1989], ''Iran'' (journal), Vol. 27, British Institute of Persian Studies, pp.5-6. Retrieved 10 March 2016</ref>
On his return to England he joined in 1930 the Sub-Department of Oriental Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, under Laurence Binyon, in 1940 becoming the department's deputy keeper, and in 1946, its keeper. Under his tenure he managed employment intake, collections and acquisitions, and curated special exhibitions using the department's own collections, and those from public and private sources.<ref name=DictArt/><ref name=Jstor/>
The archeologist Roman Ghirshman invited Gray to Iran in 1951, to study Ville Royale excavations at Susa. Further visits to Iran included Iranian Institute's and British Council lectures at Isfahan, Tabriz, and Mashhad, and for Shiraz he urged, as a member of the Iranian Institute governing body, investigations of the dye trade between the Persian Gulf and China.<ref name=Jstor/>
He became the temporary Director of the British Museum in 1968, and retired in 1969. During retirement his focus turned to the relationship between Chinese ceramics and Persian painting. He became vice-president of the British Institute of Persian Studies in 1969, chaired the Sixth International Congress of Iranian Art and Archaeology at Oxford in 1972, and became President of the Societas Iranologica Europara in 1983.<ref name=Jstor/> As an art historian Gray wrote exhibition guides and books on Orientalism and Islamic Art.
A curatorial position in the Department of Asia at the British Museum is named after Gray.<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/our-work/departments/asia Department of Asia], British Museum. Retrieved 3 February 2021</ref>
==Personal life== In 1933 Basil Gray married the scholar of art and lettering Nicolete Mary Binyon (1911–1997), daughter of Laurence Binyon, poet, art scholar and dramatist.<ref name=ODNB>Hatcher, John (2004); "Binyon, (Robert) Laurence (1869–1943)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press</ref> There were five children from the marriage<ref name=Independent>Barker, Nicolas; [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-nicolete-gray-1255651.html "Obituary: Nicolete Gray"]. ''The Independent'', 12 June 1997. Retrieved 10 March 2016</ref> including the art historian Camilla Gray.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/01/26/archives/camilla-gray-prokofiev-historian-of-russian-art.html|title=Camilla Gray Prokofiev, Historian of Russian Art|date=January 26, 1972|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-08-28|language=en}}</ref> Basil Gray died on 10 June 1989.
==Publications==
*Gray, Basil, ''Japanese Screen Painting'', Faber and Faber *''The Arts of India'', Basil Gray (editor), Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd, {{ISBN|0706915712}} *Gray, Basil, ''Rajput painting (The Faber gallery of oriental art)'', Pitman Publishing (1949) *Gray, Basil, ''Japanese Woodcuts'', Bruno Cassirer *Gray, Basil, ''Treasures of Indian miniatures in the Bikaner Palace collection'', Cassirer; Faber and Faber (1951) *Gray, Basil, ''Early Chinese pottery and porcelain (Faber monographs on pottery and porcelain series)'', Faber and Faber, 1st ed. edition (1953) *Gray, Basil; Ashton, Leigh, ''Chinese Art'', Faber and Faber (1953), {{ISBN|1125237821}} *''Rajput Painting'', Basil Gray (introduction and notes), Faber and Faber (1956) *Gray, Basil. ''Persian Painting: Treasures of Asia, Vol. II''. Editions d'Art Albert Skira, Geneva (1961) *Gray, Basil, ''Persian miniatures from ancient manuscripts (Fontana Unesco art books)'', Collins; Unesco (1962) *Barrett, Douglas and Gray, Basil. ''Painting of India: Treasures of Asia, Vol. V''. Editions d'Art Albert Skira, Geneva (1963) *Gray, Basil, Garner, Harry M, ''The Ceramic Art of China'', The Victoria & Albert Museum (1971), *''The Persian art of the book : catalogue of an exhibition held at the Bodleian Library to mark the sixth International Congress of Iranian Art and Archaeology'', Basil Gray (editor), B.W. Robinson (editor), Oxford : Bodleian Library; 1st edition (1972) *''Illustrations to the "World History" of Rashid Al-Din'', Basil Gray (editor), Edinburgh University Press (1976), {{ISBN|0852242719}} *Gray, Basil, ''Persian Painting (Treasures of Asia)'', Macmillan Publishers (1977), {{ISBN|0333223748}} *Gray, Basil; Barrat D., ''Indian Painting (Treasures of Asia)'', Macmillan Publishers (1978), {{ISBN|0333242033}} *Gray, Basil; Akimushkin O. F., ''The Arts of the Book in Central Asia- 14th-16th Centuries'', Shambhala Publications (1979), {{ISBN|0394507673}} *Gray, Basil, ''Sung Porcelain and Stoneware (The Faber monographs on pottery & porcelain)'' Faber and Faber, 1st edition (1984), {{ISBN|0571130488}} *Gray, Basil, ''Persian Painting (Skira)'', Editions d'Art Albert Skira SA (1995), {{ISBN|2605003035}} *Gray, Basil, ''La Peinture Indienne – Traduit de l'Anglais'', Flammarion (2008), {{ISBN|2605000605}} *Gray, Basil (author); Vincent, J,B. (illustrator), ''[https://archive.org/details/buddhistcavepain0000unse/ Buddhist Cave Paintings at Tun-huang]'', Literary Licensing, LLC (2011), {{ISBN|1258113961}}
'''See also''' *Rogers, John Michael, “Basil Gray,” ''Iran'' 17, 1979, pp. 3–9 (includes a bibliography of Gray's works to 1979) *Gray, Edmund, "Centenary Bibliography of Basil Gray", in ''Iran'' Vol. 42 (2004), pp. 235–245 (continuation of Rogers' bibliography, after 1979)<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor = 4300674|title = Centenary Bibliography of Basil Gray|journal = Iran|volume = 42|pages = 235–245|last1 = Gray|first1 = Edmund|year = 2004| doi=10.2307/4300674 }}</ref>
==Obituaries and memorials== *Watson, William, “Basil Gray, CBE,” ''Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 1988-89'', 1990, pp. 9–10. *Pinder-Wilson, Ralph, “Basil Gray, 1904-89,” ''Iran'' 27, 1989, pp. v-vi. *Pinder-Wilson, Ralph, “Basil Gray, 1904-89,” in ''Proceedings of the British Academy 105: 1999 Lectures and Memoirs'', Oxford, 2000, pp. 439–57.
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Basil}} Category:1904 births Category:1989 deaths Category:People from Kensington Category:People educated at Bradfield College Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford Category:English art historians Category:Employees of the British Museum Category:English curators Category:Fellows of the British Academy Category:Historians of Chinese art Category:Historians of Japanese art Category:Historians of Islamic art Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire