From the New York Times obituary on the Arts Beat Blog: "Robert Hughes, the eloquent, combative art critic and historian who lived with an operatic flair and wrote with a sense of authority that owed more to Zola or Ruskin than to his own century, died Monday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. He was 74 and had lived for many years in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. He died after a long illness, according to his wife, Doris Downes." by Randy Kennedy Read the full entry here .