A. J. (Alexander Joseph) Finberg

Born in Bethnal Green, London, on April 23, 1866, he studied at the City of London College and at King's College London, and he also trained in painting in Paris. That mix of practical art training and scholarship fed into a career as an art critic and historian.

He is best known for his work on British art, especially for his deep knowledge of J. M. W. Turner. In 1905 he was commissioned to catalogue and organize the paintings in the Turner Bequest, and sources describe him as having rediscovered a number of previously unknown Turner canvases during that work. He was also a founder of the Walpole Society, a group devoted to the study of British art history.

Finberg wrote widely on Turner and British art, and his books helped make specialist research more accessible to general readers. He died on March 15, 1939.