AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY PAUL FRANKL CONCERNING HIS EARLIER STATEMENTS REGARDING PETER HEMMEL AND THE WINDOWS OF WALBOURG IN ALSACE.

Princeton, NJ: Dec. 5. 1951.. 1951.. Very good. - Quarto. 63 words penned on a sheet of cream stock, approximately 10-1/2 inches high by 8-1/4 inches wide, with his address stamped in the top left corner. Signed "Paul Frankl". The top edge of the letter is slightly roughed & there is some light creasing to its bottom edge. Folded 3 times for mailing. Together with the stamped addressed mailing envelope. Very good. Frankl writes to a Mrs. C. W. Mortimer, sending her a reprint of one of his articles. "Reading again what I wrote eight years ago I find that I changed my opinion on one point. Hemmel had no part in the windows of Walbourg in Alsace (p. 157). This is a detail interesting only a very small group of specialists, but I want to confess that I was mistaken...."

Paul Frankl [1878-1962] was an Austro-Hungarian-born art historian. He is best known for his discussions of architectural principles and history, which he organized within a Gestalt-oriented framework. After training as an architect he studied philosophy, history and art history in Munich under Heinrich Wolfflin and Berthold Riehl. In 1934 the Nazis terminated his position as a professor at Halle University and he moved to the United States that same year. In 1939 he obtained a position as art historian at the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton University. He received a tenured appointment in 1949, which he held until his death.