Eric Maclagan

Sir Eric Robert Dalrymple Maclagan KCVO CBE FSA (4 December 1879 – 14 September 1951) was a British museum director and art historian.

[1] After his time in France, Maclagan returned to the Victoria and Albert Museum; and on the retirement of Sir Cecil Harcourt Smith in 1924 was appointed Director and Secretary.

While at the museum, Maclagan wrote many scholarly articles and catalogues; and also an essay on The Bayeux Tapestry, published (as a King Penguin) in 1943, which became a minor bestseller.

He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, acting as vice-president from 1932 to 1936, president of the Museums Association from 1935 to 1936, and chairman of the National Buildings Record.

Despite being a specialist in the field of early Christian and Italian Renaissance art, Maclagan also admired many modern artists.

In his personal collection he had a bust of himself made by Ivan Meštrović and was one of the first private collectors to buy the work of Henry Moore, he also unveiled the painting of the crucifixion by Graham Sutherland in St Matthew's Church, Northampton.

He made several translations of the works of French poets, especially Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Valéry and published a volume of poems, Leaves in the Road in 1901 whilst an undergraduate.

They had two sons: the elder, Michael became a distinguished historian, antiquary and herald; the younger, Gerald, was killed in action serving with the Rhodesian Air Force in 1942.