Robert L. Herbert, the "pioneering scholar of 19th-century art" who transformed the study of Impressionism, died on December 17 at the age of 91, the New York Times reported. The cause of death was a stroke.
Over the course of a teaching career lasting more than 60 years, Herbert curated numerous exhibitions and published books prolifically. They included studies on the work of artists like David, Seurat, Monet and Renoir, and his magnum opus was Impressionism: Art, Leisure and Parisian Society.
Published by Yale University Press in 1988, it "interweaves sociology of class and gender relationships with close readings of canonical painting" and took Herbert 20 years to write. Immediately hailed as a landmark in the field, Impressionism "vaulted him into the ranks of exalted socially minded art historians."
Herbert spent 34 years at Yale before joining his wife, Eugenia Herbert, at Mount Holyoke College, where she was a history professor. He became the Andrew W. Mellon professor of humanities there, and both retired in 1997.
He earned many honors throughout his career, including a Guggenheim fellowship in 1970-71 and the Distinguished Service Award from the College Art Association in 2008. In 1991 the French government awarded him the Legion of Honor.