Doris DOHRENWEND

DORIS DOHRENWEND 1931 - 2019 Born in Bronxville in New York, Doris Dohrenwend died of multiple cancers at her home in Toronto on July 31, 2019. She is survived by her brother, Bruce Dohrenwend, and sister-in-law, Catherine Douglass, in New York City. Doris was an art historian and curator in the Far Eastern Department of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) from 1967, when she immigrated to Canada, until her retirement in 1996. Work in Japan had led to a strong interest in Asian art and a return to school. At the University of Michigan, 1955-1957, she studied Japanese art and crafts under James Marshall Plumer. Her thesis was on Japanese modern woodblock prints. Later at Harvard, she concentrated on Neolithic and Bronze Age China under Max Loehr. Her thesis, on the human image in Chinese art before Buddhism, was accepted for a Ph.D. in 1973. These studies, including research travel, were made possible by the Ford Foundation Foreign Area Training Program. In Toronto, she concentrated on the early China collections in which the ROM is notably rich. In connection with work towards special exhibitions, she also became absorbed in studies of Chinese glass and, particularly, jade, publishing the first catalogue of the museum's jade in 1971. The last years before her retirement (1990-1995) were dominated by a specific commission naming Doris Dohrenwend and colleague Patricia Proctor to conduct a search for special works of Chinese art - large and/or fine or gap-filling works - to present for ROM purchase. This involved travel and knowledge of the art market in the United States, Europe and East Asia and was made possible by a landmark bequest from Herman Herzog Levy of Hamilton, Ontario, gentleman, collector and old friend of the ROM's Far Eastern Department. Donations in memory of Doris Dohrenwend may be sent to The Bishop White Committee, East Asia Endowment Fund, Far Eastern Department, ROM, Toronto, at bwc@rom.on.ca.