E. B. (Ernest Binfield) Havell

Born in 1861, Ernest Binfield Havell published as E. B. Havell and became an important English arts administrator, art historian, and writer on Indian art and architecture. He came from a family of artists and art educators, a background that fit naturally with the work he later did in art schools and museums.

Havell is especially associated with his years in India, including his leadership at the Government School of Art in Calcutta from 1896 to 1905. There he worked during a period of major debate about art education and helped encourage greater respect for Indian artistic traditions rather than treating European academic models as the only standard.

He wrote numerous books on Indian art, architecture, and culture, and his work helped shape how many English-language readers first encountered these subjects. Although modern readers may approach his ideas in historical context, he remains a notable figure in the story of how Indian art was studied, taught, and discussed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.