Architect and seminal architectural historian for the Baroque. Gurlitt hailed from an illustrious creative family of assimilated Jews. He was named for his great uncle, the well-known composer [Gustav] Cornelius Gurlitt (1820-1901). His father was Louis Gurlitt (1812-1879), a Danish/German landscape painter and his mother Elisabeth Lewald (Gurlitt), sister of the writer Fanny Lewald (1811-1889). The conductor and composer Manfred Gurlitt (1890-1972) was also a relative.