Transforming medieval art from Saint Petersburg to Paris : André Grabar's life and scholarship between 1917 and 1945

André Nikolajevič Grabar (1896–1990) – today esteemed as one of the twentieth century's most important scholars of medieval art history – endured the upheaval of his life path by emigrating, from Russia to France by way of Bulgaria, before becoming the famous French art historian we recognize. The experience of emigration profoundly recast Grabar's thought both on his homeland and on his studies of medieval and Byzantine art. This transformation happened during a timespan, between 1917 and 1945, when the field of art history itself was undergoing important, seemingly contrary, changes, not only in the direction of internationalization but also toward nationalisms. Throughout those crucial years, Grabar ultimately became an ideal figure of mediation between his native Russian milieu and the French one to which he acculturated.