Claire Richter Sherman

1930 - 2023

Sherman

Claire Richter Sherman

Claire Richter Sherman, born February 11, 1930, in Boston, died February 25, 2023, in Chapel Hill, NC. The daughter of immigrants Harry and Fanny Haifetz Richter, Claire graduated from Girls' Latin School in Boston and received her B.A. in History magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Radcliffe in 1951. While on a Fulbright Fellowship in Europe in 1951-52, she met a young architect, Stanley M. Sherman, and the two married in 1954. Claire earned an M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1958 and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1965, both in Art History.



She was the author or editor of several books: The Portraits of Charles V of France, 1338-1380 (1969); Women as Interpreters of the Visual Arts, 1820-1979 (1982); Imaging Aristotle: Visual and Verbal Representation in Fourteenth-Century France (1995); and Writing on Hands: Memory and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe, the catalog of an exhibition she curated at Dickinson College and the Folger Shakespeare Library in 2000-2001. Having taught at American University and the University of Virginia, she served as Project Head for Sponsored Research in the History of Art at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery in Washington, DC from 1986 to 1994. Her nearly 65-year partnership with her husband, most of it at their home in Northwest Washington, included an exhibition of his design bookbindings that she curated at the Walters Art Museum in 2006. Claire enjoyed reading, gardening, travel, and spending time with her many friends. Predeceased by her husband, a sister, and a brother, she is survived by her son, Daniel Sherman and son-in-law Eduardo Douglas, of Chapel Hill, NC. A private burial service was held in Chapel Hill. Contributions in her memory can be directed to the University of Michigan History of Art Graduate Student Support Fund - 312381 in memory of Claire R. Sherman, at ( https://donate.umich.edu/8qZ2z).