{{Short description|British art historian (1927–1982)}} {{EngvarB|date=March 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = David Carritt | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = Hugh David Graham Carritt | birth_date = 15 April 1927 | birth_place = London, England | death_date = 3 August 1982 (aged 55) | death_place = Mount Street, London, England | education = Rugby School | alma_mater = Christ Church, Oxford | occupation = Art historian, dealer and critic }} '''Hugh David Graham Carritt''' (15 April 1927 – 3 August 1982) was a British art historian, dealer and critic, who was described by ''The New York Times'' as being "responsible for more sensational discoveries in the field of Old Master painting since World War II than any other man".<ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/05/obituaries/david-carritt-english-art-critic-historian-and-dealer-dies-at-55.html|title=David Carritt, English art critic, historian and dealer, dies at 55|date=5 August 1982|work=The New York Times}}</ref>
==Early life== Hugh David Graham Carritt was born on 15 April 1927, the only son of the musician and lecturer Reginald Graham Carritt and his wife Christian Norah Begg, of 2 Royal Avenue, Chelsea, London.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.notableabodes.com/person-abode-details/9400/hugh-david-graham-carritt-arts_2-royal-avenue-chelsea-london|title=Notable Abodes – Royal Avenue, Chelsea F.C., London|access-date=21 September 2016|archive-date=23 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923014148/http://www.notableabodes.com/person-abode-details/9400/hugh-david-graham-carritt-arts_2-royal-avenue-chelsea-london|url-status=dead}}</ref> He had an older sister and a twin sister.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|title=Carritt, (Hugh) David Graham (1927–1982)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30903|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/30903 |accessdate=28 September 2016}}</ref> He attended Rugby School before reading modern history at Christ Church, Oxford where he won an open scholarship, but graduated with a third-class degree in 1948.<ref name="ODNB" /><ref name="dictionaryofarthistorians.org">{{cite web|url=https://www.arthistorians.info/carrittd|title=David Graham Carritt|website=Dictionary of Art Historians}}</ref>
==Career== [[File:Jean Honore Fragonard Psyche showing her Sisters her Gifts from Cupid.jpg|thumb|Jean-Honoré Fragonard – ''Psyche showing her Sisters her Gifts from Cupid'']]
After university, Carritt worked for himself as an art dealer, and wrote on art for the ''Burlington Magazine'', the ''Evening Standard'', and ''The Spectator''.<ref name="ODNB" />
In 1952, at the age of 25, Carritt discovered a painting by Caravaggio in the remote home of a British Navy retired surgeon captain. ''The Concert'' is now owned by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.<ref name="dictionaryofarthistorians.org"/><ref name="ODNB" />
He joined the auction house Christie's in London, alongside William Mostyn-Owen, Noël Annesley, and Brian Sewell, becoming a director in 1964.<ref name="dictionaryofarthistorians.org"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/jul/20/william-mostyn-owen-obituary|title=William Mostyn-Owen obituary|first=Humphrey|last=Burton|date=20 July 2011|work=The Guardian}}</ref> According to ''The Independent'', Sewell "conceived a violent dislike of Carritt, a colleague who committed the dual sins of being a better connoisseur and a Rugbeian".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/brian-sewell-critic-both-loved-and-cursed-for-his-insistence-that-most-though-not-all-modern-art-is-10510023.html|title=Brian Sewell: Loved and hated for insisting most modern art is rubbish|work=The Independent|date=21 September 2015}}</ref>
At a "heavily attended auction" of works from Lord Rosebery's Mentmore Towers collection in 1977, Carritt realised that ''The Toilet of Venus'', attributed to Carle van Loo, a minor painter, was a painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, ''Psyche Showing her Sisters her Gifts from Cupid''. He bought it for £8,000 (or about $14,000), and in 1978 it was acquired by London's National Gallery for £495,000.<ref name="nytimes.com" /><ref name="ODNB" /><ref name="National Gallery">{{cite web|title=Psyche showing her Sisters her Gifts from Cupid|url=https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/jean-honore-fragonard-psyche-showing-her-sisters-her-gifts-from-cupid|website=The National Gallery|accessdate=28 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.arthistorynews.com/entries_by_date/2012/November/3 |title=Previous Posts: November 2012 |date=16 November 2012 |work=Art History News |accessdate=1 October 2016}}</ref>
At the cottage of Joan, Lady Baird, he discovered an unrecorded painting by Rogier van der Weyden, which is now in London's National Gallery.<ref name="ODNB" /> He also discovered an allegorical painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo on the ceiling of the dining room of the Egyptian embassy in London.<ref name="ODNB" /> In a shed in Dublin, he found five large and very dirty canvases by Francesco Guardi.<ref name="ODNB" />
He founded David Carritt Limited, which is now known as Artemis Fine Arts.<ref name="Artemis">{{cite web|title=Artemis Fine Arts|url=http://www.artemisfinearts.london/about/|website=Artemis Fine Arts|accessdate=28 September 2016}}</ref>
==Personal life== Carritt was gay.<ref name="Carter2002">{{cite book|author=Carter, Miranda|title=Anthony Blunt: His lives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XDqodrpdqGQC&pg=PA390|accessdate=22 September 2016|year=2002|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-330-36766-0|page=390}}</ref><ref name="Blond2004">{{cite book|author=Blond, Anthony|title=Jew made in England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-uj-kDIi0E0C&pg=PA134|accessdate=22 September 2016|year=2004|publisher=Timewell Press|isbn=978-1-85725-200-2|page=134}}</ref> According to Michael Bloch's biography of the politician, Carritt had an affair with Jeremy Thorpe in the late 1950s.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fujSBQAAQBAJ&pg=PP95 |title=Jeremy Thorpe |author=Michael Bloch |year=2014 |publisher=Hachette |pages=95–96 |isbn=978-1408706947 }}</ref>
He died of cancer on 3 August 1982 in his London flat at 120 Mount Street, aged 55.<ref name="nytimes.com"/><ref name="ODNB" />
==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Carritt, David}} Category:1927 births Category:1982 deaths Category:British art historians Category:People educated at Rugby School Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Category:Christie's people Category:Deaths from cancer in England Category:20th-century English LGBTQ people