Oliver Nigel Valentine Glendinning (16 October 1929 – 23 February 2013), known as Nigel Glendinning, was a scholar and authority on Goya and 18th Century Spanish literature.[1][2] He wrote a history of Spanish literature in the age of the Enlightenment and his analytical approach to Goya combined the artist's work with an understanding of its historical context.[1]
Glendinning's obituary in The Guardian described him as the 'kindest and most generous of colleagues'.[3]
Life
Oliver Nigel Valentine Glendinning was born in East Sheen on 16 October 1929 into a musical and artistic family.[1] His mother, Olive (née Ledward), was the sister of the sculptor Gilbert Ledward, and sister in law of the painter Percy Jowett.[2] Nigel's father, Alec Glendinning, was a bank manager and keen amateur musician.[2] Glendinning's mother had first been married to Guy Valentine, the son of the actor Sydney Valentine.[2] Guy Valentine died in the First World War.[2]
Glendinning went on to lecture at Christ Church, Oxford.[3] His knowledge of Goya led him to contribute to a Royal Academy exhibition of the artist's work in 1963.[3] After Oxford he held a Chair at the University of Southampton and subsequent professorships at Trinity College, Dublin, and Queen Mary's, London, the latter of which he was made Professor Emeritus in 1991.[3]
As a young lecturer Glendinning married his undergraduate student, the future writer Victoria Glendinning (née Seebohm), whom he divorced in 1981.[4] He is survived by four sons: Simon Glendinning, Paul Glendinning, the photographer Hugo Glendinning and the sport journalist Matthew Glendinning.[3]
Selected bibliography
Vida y obra de Cadalso (Joseph de Cadalso, 1741-1782, His Life And His Works, Versión castellana de Ángela Figuera), published 1962 OCLC164088619
Spanish Painting In The Golden Age, published by the Hispanic and Luso Brazilian Council, London, 1977 OCLC976582350
Nineteenth-Century British Envoys In Spain And The Taste For Spanish Art In England, Documents for Collecting published in the Burlington Magazine, London, 1989 OCLC715698439
Goya And His Critics, published by Ann Arbor, USA, 1995 OCLC1132301597