Basil Gray

Basil Gray, (1904–1989), was an English art historian, Islamicist, author, and the head of the British Museum's Oriental department.

Early life Basil Gray was born in 1904 at Kensington, the son to Charles Gray and Florence Elworthy Cowell. His father was a Royal Army Medical Corps surgeon. He attended Bradfield College and in the 1920s studied at New College, Oxford.

Career Following graduation in 1927 Gray travelled to the Schönbrunn Palace and Osterreichisches Museum in Vienna to view Mughal painting.

On his return to England he joined in 1930 the Sub-Department of Oriental Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, under Laurence Binyon, in 1940 becoming the department's deputy keeper, and in 1946, its keeper. Under his tenure he managed employment intake, collections and acquisitions, and curated special exhibitions using the department's own collections, and those from public and private sources.

Personal life In 1933 Basil Gray married the scholar of art and lettering Nicolete Mary Binyon (1911–1997), daughter of Laurence Binyon, poet, art scholar and dramatist. There were five children from the marriage including the art historian Camilla Gray. Basil Gray died on 10 June 1989.

Publications

Gray, Basil, Japanese Screen Painting, Faber and Faber The Arts of India, Basil Gray (editor), Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd, Gray, Basil, Rajput painting (The Faber gallery of oriental art), Pitman Publishing (1949) Gray, Basil, Japanese Woodcuts, Bruno Cassirer Gray, Basil, Treasures of Indian miniatures in the Bikaner Palace collection, Cassirer; Faber and Faber (1951) Gray, Basil, Early Chinese pottery and porcelain (Faber monographs on pottery and porcelain series), Faber and Faber, 1st ed. edition (1953) Gray, Basil; Ashton, Leigh, Chinese Art, Faber and Faber (1953), Rajput Painting, Basil Gray (introduction and notes), Faber and Faber (1956) Gray, Basil. Persian Painting: Treasures of Asia, Vol. II. Editions d'Art Albert Skira, Geneva (1961) Gray, Basil, Persian miniatures from ancient manuscripts (Fontana Unesco art books), Collins; Unesco (1962) Barrett, Douglas and Gray, Basil. Painting of India: Treasures of Asia, Vol. V. Editions d'Art Albert Skira, Geneva (1963) Gray, Basil, Garner, Harry M, The Ceramic Art of China, The Victoria & Albert Museum (1971), The Persian art of the book : catalogue of an exhibition held at the Bodleian Library to mark the sixth International Congress of Iranian Art and Archaeology, Basil Gray (editor), B.W. Robinson (editor), Oxford : Bodleian Library; 1st edition (1972) Illustrations to the "World History" of Rashid Al-Din, Basil Gray (editor), Edinburgh University Press (1976), Gray, Basil, Persian Painting (Treasures of Asia), Macmillan Publishers (1977), Gray, Basil; Barrat D., Indian Painting (Treasures of Asia), Macmillan Publishers (1978), Gray, Basil; Akimushkin O. F., The Arts of the Book in Central Asia- 14th-16th Centuries, Shambhala Publications (1979), Gray, Basil, Sung Porcelain and Stoneware (The Faber monographs on pottery & porcelain) Faber and Faber, 1st edition (1984), Gray, Basil, Persian Painting (Skira), Editions d'Art Albert Skira SA (1995), Gray, Basil, La Peinture Indienne – Traduit de l'Anglais, Flammarion (2008), Gray, Basil (author); Vincent, J.B. (illustrator), Buddhist Cave Paintings at Tun-huang, Literary Licensing, LLC (2011),