George L. Stout
| George L. Stout | |
|---|---|
George Leslie Stout, c. 1965, Archives of American Art
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| Birth name | George Leslie Stout |
| Born |
October 5, 1897 Winterset, Iowa |
| Died | July 1, 1978 (aged 80) Santa Clara, California |
| Service/branch | U.S. Naval Reserve and U.S. Army |
| Awards | Bronze Star, Army Commendation Medal, Congressional Gold Medal |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret Hayes Stout |
| Other work | Art conservation, museum director |
George Leslie Stout (1897–1978) was an American art conservation specialist and museum director who founded the first laboratory in the United States to study art conservation, as well as the first journal on the subject of art conservation. During World War II, he was a member of the U.S. Army unit devoted to recovering art, the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section (MFAA), a.k.a. "The Monuments Men."
Stout was born on October 5, 1897, in Winterset, Iowa (which was also the birthplace of actor John Wayne). He studied at Grinnell College for two years and then served in a U.S. military hospital unit during World War I. After the war, he completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Iowa, taught painting in the art department for a couple years, then traveled throughout Europe. In 1924, he married Margaret Hayes, with whom he had two sons, Robert and Thomas.
In 1926, Stout began work on his master's degree at Harvard University. In 1929, he graduated and started his museum career in the art conservation department of Harvard's Fogg Art Museum, where he worked as a lecturer and conservator. Along with Harvard chemist Rutherford John Gettens, Stout pioneered three major areas of art conservation: rudiments, degradation, and reparations. This helped bring art conservation work into the world of modern science. He became head of the Fogg's conservation department in 1933, a position he held until 1947.
A Navy reservist for some time, Stout was placed on active duty in 1943, and soon after joined the Twelfth Army Group. Because of his art conservation background, he was one of the first recruited to the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section (MFAA). The group was charged with the protection of and documentation of damages to European cultural monuments during World War II, as well as the investigation, location, recovery, and repatriation of art that had been plundered by the Nazis.
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