In the nineteenth century the subject of History of Art was promoted in Oxford for its value within the kind of general education the University aimed to provide at this time, but not as a subject in its own right. The Slade lectures - founded in 1869 in pursuance of the will of Felix Slade and delivered once a year – were thought to provide sufficient scope for study of the subject.

A growing demand for specialisation in the subject led to the creation of a Professorship in 1955 which was first held by Professor Edgar Wind. The Department of the History of Art was subsequently established in 1961, and was situated at 35 Beaumont Street. Professor Wind's interest in iconography and the collection of associated books and photographs which he assembled in the Department provided a good potential basis for interdisciplinary studies. When he became Professor and head of department in 1967, Francis Haskell added to the department's resources with a wide range of eighteenth and nineteenth century source books, thus broadening the scope of the library without altering its fundamental value as a centre for study.

Professor Martin Kemp arrived at the Department in 1995 with a brief to further develop history of art at Oxford, and to construct an organisation appropriate to the University's international status, and its rich collections of art and other visual material. As part of this development, the Centre for Visual Studies was opened in 1999, based in George Street. The mission of the centre was to understand visual cultures through the study of artefacts across a wide scale of periods.

Although it is a small department by comparison with departments of the history of art elsewhere, an intense concentration of resources has given the department an international status within specialised fields, such as French 'salon' art, and the Italian Renaissance. The Department's expansion since its founding in 1961 is exemplified by the move in 2001 of both the Department and the Centre for Visual Studies to Littlegate House, St Ebbe's. Until 2005, only graduate-level courses and degrees were offered within the Department, but members of the Department were also involved in undergraduate courses and tutorials offered principally through the Modern History Faculty.

Professors of the History of Art: