William Martin Conway
Sir
William Martin Conway (
April 12 1856 -
April 19 1937), English art critic and
mountaineer, was the son of Reverend William Conway, afterwards canon of
Westminster. W.M. Conway was born in
Rochester, England, and educated at
Repton and
Trinity College, Cambridge. He became interested in early printing and
engraving, and in 1880 made a tour of the principal libraries of Europe in pursuit of his studies, the result appearing in 1884 as a
History of the Woodcutters of the Netherlands in the Fifteenth Century. His later works on art included:
- ''Early Flemish Artists (1887)
- The Literary Remains of Albrecht Drer (1889)
- The Dawn of Art in the Ancient World (1891), dealing with Chaldaean, Assyrian and Egyptian art.
- Early Tuscan Artists (1902)
- Art Treasures of Soviet Russia (1925)
- Giorgione as a Landscape Painter (1929).
From 1884 to 1887 he was professor of art at
University College,
Liverpool; and from 1901 to 1904 he was Slade professor of the fine arts at Cambridge. He was
knighted in 1895 for his efforts in mapping 5,180 square km of the
Karakoram Range in the
Himalayas three years earlier.
Conway became an early member of the Alpine Club, of which he was president from 1902 to 1904. In 1892 he beat the then current climbing record by ascending to a height of 23,000 ft. (7,010 metres) in the Himalayas in the course of an exploring and mountaineering expedition undertaken under the auspices of the Royal Society, the Royal Geographical Society and the British Association. In 1896-1897 he explored the interior of Spitsbergen, and the following year he explored and surveyed the Bolivian Andes, climbing Sorata (21,500'/6,553m) and Illimani (21,200'/6,461m). He also ascended Aconcagua (22,831'/6,959m) and explored Tierra del Fuego. At the Paris exhibition of 1900 he received the gold medal for mountain surveys, and the founders medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1905. His expeditions are described in:
- Climbing and Exploration in the KaraKoram Himalayas (1894)
- The Alps from End to End (1895)
- The First Crossing of Spitsbergen (1897)
- The Bolivian Andes (1901)
- No Man's Land, a History of Spitsbergen from its discovery in 1596 to the beginning of the Scientific Exploration of the Country (1906)
- Mountain Memories (1920)
W.M. Conway died in
London at the age of 81.
See also: List of climbers
Reference