2024-04-16
At the end of January this year, the famous art historian who studied the works of Diego Velázquez and El Greco, died at the age of 82. He had been a professor at New York University since 1977.
Jonathan Brown's magnum opus is considered to be his book published in 1990, Painting in Spain, 1500-1700, in which he analyses two centuries of Spanish painting. His favourite subject of research was Diego Velázquez. He has written two important books on the painter: a 1986 biography of the artist, Velázquez: Painter and Courtier, and in 2014 In the Shadow of Velázquez. In the second publication, he combines autobiographical themes with reflections on the Spanish master's work in a highly engaging way.
He has curated numerous exhibitions at well-known cultural institutions: Princeton University Art Museum, the Frick Collection in New York, the Prado and the Royal Palace in Madrid. During his career, he has taught at Princeton University and at New York University. Since the 1970s he has educated generations of teachers and curators. In an obituary published by the Prado, Brown was described as "one of the greatest specialists on the Spanish Golden Age", adding: "generations of art historians have benefited from the knowledge of this intellectual".