Sir Christopher John White CVO FBA (born 19 September 1930) 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 Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

and

Dutch Golden Age painting Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Republi ...

and printmaking. White received a BA from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, followed by an MA from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, and a PhD at the Courtauld Institute,

. He then joined the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

's Department of Prints and Drawings in 1954. From 1965 to 1971, he was director of

Old Master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

sales at Colnaghi in London, then moving to be curator of

graphic arts A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional graphics, i.e. produced on a flat surface,National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

in Washington, D.C., until 1973. From 1973, White was director of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, an affiliate of Yale in London, and also an associate director of the Yale Center for British Art. In 1985 he left these to become director of the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in 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 ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

and a

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

, retiring in 1997. In 1997, White became a trustee of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

. He is also vice-chairman of the British Institute of Florence and a trustee of the

Mauritshuis The Mauritshuis (, ; ) is an art museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The museum houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings which consists of 854 objects, mostly Dutch Golden Age paintings. The collection contains works by Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van ...

in The Hague. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the 2001 New Year Honours for services to art history. White was elected a

of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

in 1989. He is an honorary research fellow at the Courtauld Institute.

Selected works

His books include: * ''Rembrandt as an Etcher: A Study of the Artist at Work'', 1969 () *Christopher White, ''The Late Etchings of Rembrandt'', 1969, British Museum/Lund Humphries, London (exhibition catalogue) * ''Rembrandt'',

World of Art ''World of Art'' (formerly known as ''The World of Art Library'') is a long established series of pocket-sized art books from the British publisher Thames & Hudson, comprising over 300 titles as of 2021. The books are typically around 200 page ...

series, Thames & Hudson * White, Christopher, Buvelot, Quentin (eds), ''Rembrandt by himself'', 1999, National Gallery, London/Mauritshuis, The Hague, * ''Anthony Van Dyck: Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel'' (Getty Museum Studies on Art), 2006 * ''The Later Flemish Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen'', 2007, with Desmond Shawe-Taylor * ''Dutch Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen'', 2016 () * ''Anthony Van Dyck and the Art of Portraiture'', 2021 ()

References

1930 births Living people People from London Alumni of the University of London Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art Alumni of the University of Oxford British art historians British art curators English curators Rembrandt scholars Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of Worcester College, Oxford Employees of the British Museum Keepers and directors of the Ashmolean Museum National Gallery of Art People associated with the Victoria and Albert Museum Academics of the Courtauld Institute of Art Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order Knights Bachelor {{UK-historian-stub