Jerrold Ziff
Inducted in 2025
Jerrold Ziff was a distinguished scholar of 18th- and 19th‑century art, and a foremost authority on English painting, especially the work of J. M. W. Turner. A native of California, he earned his BA from Occidental College in 1951 and an MA from USC in 1954, before completing his PhD at Harvard in 1960.
Ziff began his academic career at UCLA and later chaired the Department of the Arts at Trinity College (Hartford), before joining the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1969 as professor of Art History. A year later he became chair—serving in this role for fifteen years (with a two-year hiatus)—guiding the rapid expansion of the department and helping establish its doctoral program. His leadership fostered collegiality and rigor, earning respect from faculty and administrators alike.
Internationally admired for his scholarship, Ziff contributed seminal articles on Turner’s poetic and theoretical dimensions—published in outlets such as Art Bulletin, Burlington Magazine, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, and Gazette des Beaux-Arts. He was an active collector and connoisseur of old-master drawings, celebrated for his discerning eye. Additionally, he served for many years as vice president of the Turner Society, shaping scholarly appreciation of the artist.
Even after retiring in the mid-1990s, Ziff remained a valued mentor; students, museum staff, and university deans continued to seek his advice until his passing in 2001. In recognition of his legacy, the Krannert Art Museum inaugurated the Jerrold Ziff Lecture in Modern Art on November 3, 2001, delivered by Christopher Green of the Courtauld Institute.
Warmly remembered for his collegial spirit and scholarly depth, Ziff left a profound imprint on Illinois’s Art History program and on Turner studies worldwide.
