Professor Christopher Brown | |
|---|---|
 Christopher Brown (1984) | |
| Born | Christopher Paul Hadley Brown 15 April 1948 |
| Occupation | Museum director |
| Employer | University of Oxford |
Christopher Paul Hadley Brown, CBE (born 15 April 1948) is a British art historian and academic. He was director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England from 1998 to 2014. [1] [2] He is recognised as an authority on Sir Anthony van Dyck. [1]
Brown was born on 15 April 1948, in Tangier, Morocco. [3] [4] His father flew Spitfires during World War II and joined civil aviation in the post war period, flying for Gibraltar Airways and British European Airways. [4] He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, an all-boys public school in Hertfordshire. [3] He then matriculated into St Catherine's College, Oxford to study history. [3] [5] In 1966, he graduated from the University of Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Modern History. [6] This was later promoted to Master of Arts (MA Oxon) as per tradition. [3] He remained at St Catherine's to complete a Diploma in Art History. [3] [6] He then undertook post-graduate research at the Courtauld Institute of Art and completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree. [5]
From 1971 to 1998, he worked at the National Gallery, London; first as Curator of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings, eventually as Chief Curator. [2] He was appointed director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in 1998 and it was largely due to his drive, determination and fundraising that the museum, especially the front part, was so spectacularly rebuilt.
Brown sits on the Prix Pictet advisory board.[ citation needed ]
In the 2011 New Year Honours, Brown was appointed commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) 'for services to museums'. [7]
He is an honorary fellow of his alma mater St Catherine's College, Oxford. [8]
Brown's works include: [3]
He has also had articles published in a number of journals, including The Times and The Times Literary Supplement. [3]
Baroque painting is the painting associated with the Baroque cultural movement. The movement is often identified with Absolutism, the Counter Reformation and Catholic Revival, but the existence of important Baroque art and architecture in non-absolutist and Protestant states throughout Western Europe underscores its widespread popularity.
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677. It is also the world's second university museum, after the establishment of the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1661 by the University of Basel.
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy.
The Caravaggisti were stylistic followers of the late 16th-century Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. His influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from Mannerism was profound. Caravaggio never established a workshop as most other painters did, and thus had no school to spread his techniques. Nor did he ever set out his underlying philosophical approach to art, the psychological realism which can only be deduced from his surviving work. But it can be seen directly or indirectly in the work of Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Bernini, and Rembrandt. Famous while he lived, Caravaggio himself was forgotten almost immediately after his death. Many of his paintings were reascribed to his followers, such as The Taking of Christ, which was attributed to the Dutch painter Gerrit van Honthorst until 1990.
Nicolaes Maes was a Dutch painter known for his genre scenes, portraits, religious compositions and the occasional still life. A pupil of Rembrandt in Amsterdam, he returned to work in his native city of Dordrecht for 20 years. In the latter part of his career he returned to Amsterdam where he became the leading portrait painter of his time. Maes contributed to the development of genre painting in the Netherlands and was the most prominent portrait painter working in Amsterdam in the final three decades of the 17th century.
The Alte Pinakothek is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pinakothek refers to the time period covered by the collection—from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. The Neue Pinakothek, re-built in 1981, covers nineteenth-century art, and Pinakothek der Moderne, opened in 2002, exhibits modern art. All three galleries are part of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, an organization of the Free state of Bavaria.
Gonzales Coques was a Flemish painter of portraits and history paintings. Because of his artistic proximity to and emulation with Anthony van Dyck he received the nickname de kleine van Dyck. Coques also worked as an art dealer.
The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, Germany, displays around 750 paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries. It includes major Italian Renaissance works as well as Dutch and Flemish paintings. Outstanding works by German, French, and Spanish painters of the period are also among the gallery's attractions.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history.
Abraham Hendriksz van Beijeren or Abraham van Beyeren was a Dutch Baroque painter of still lifes. Little recognized in his day and initially active as a marine painter, he is now considered one of the most important painters of still lifes, and still lifes of fish and so-called 'pronkstillevens', i.e. sumptuous still lifes of luxurious objects.
Jan Philip van Thielen or Jan Philips van Thielen was a Flemish painter who specialized in flower pieces and garland paintings. He was a regular collaborator with leading Flemish and Dutch figure painters of his time. Van Thielen was the most popular flower painter in Flanders and his patrons included Diego Felipez de Guzmán, 1st Marquis of Leganés and Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, the art-loving governor of the Southern Netherlands.
Events from the year 1620 in art.
The Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings in 1930 and 1931 resulted in the departure of some of the most valuable paintings from the collection of the State Hermitage Museum in Leningrad to Western museums. Several of the paintings had been in the Hermitage Collection since its creation by Empress Catherine the Great. About 250 paintings were sold, including masterpieces by Jan van Eyck, Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Raphael, and other important artists. Andrew Mellon donated the twenty-one paintings he purchased from the Hermitage to the United States government in 1937, which became the nucleus of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Adriaen Hanneman was a Dutch Golden Age painter best known for his portraits of the exiled British royal court. His style was strongly influenced by his contemporary, Anthony van Dyck.
Flemish Baroque painting refers to the art produced in the Southern Netherlands during Spanish control in the 16th and 17th centuries. The period roughly begins when the Dutch Republic was split from the Habsburg Spain regions to the south with the Spanish recapturing of Antwerp in 1585 and goes until about 1700, when Spanish Habsburg authority ended with the death of King Charles II. Antwerp, home to the prominent artists Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens, was the artistic nexus, while other notable cities include Brussels and Ghent.
Abraham de Vries was a Dutch painter who was one of the leading portraitists of his age. As he led a peripatetic lifestyle and worked in France, Antwerp and the Dutch Republic his stylistic qualities are difficult to pin down.
Sir Christopher John White CVO FBA is a British art historian and curator. He is the son of the artist and art administrator Gabriel White. He has specialized in the study of Rembrandt and Dutch Golden Age painting and printmaking.
Seymour Slive was an American art historian, who served as director of the Harvard Art Museums from 1975 to 1984. Slive was a scholar of Dutch art, specifically of the artists Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Jacob van Ruisdael.
Walter Arthur Liedtke, Jr. was an American art historian, writer and Curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was known as one of the world's leading scholars of Dutch and Flemish paintings. He died in the 2015 Metro-North Valhalla train crash.
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