Betsy Wieseman
Betsy Wieseman is an American curator and art historian specialized in the art of seventeenth-century Northern Europe. She is the Curator and Head of the Department of Northern European Paintings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Prior to joining the National Gallery of Art, she held curatorial positions at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the National Gallery in London.
Education and career
She studied at the University of Delaware and received her PhD in art history from the University of Maryland, writing it on the life and work of the painter Caspar Netscher.Wieseman is noted for her scholarship and curatorial expertise, having curated numerous international exhibitions in her field, and she has authored many books and articles on Dutch and Flemish seventeenth-century painters.
During her tenure in Cleveland she reinstalled three Northern European galleries at the museum.
One of her most well-received exhibitions was the "Late Rembrandt" exhibition at the National Gallery in London in 2014-2015 and the Rijksmuseum in 2015, which showcased Rembrandt's works from the latter part of his career.
The exhibition included approximately 40 paintings, and drawings and prints, offering new insights into Rembrandt’s techniques and thematic preoccupations during his final years.
She is known for her ability to transmute complex timelines and historic developments of the seventeenth century, concerning the period's art, to a wide audience through her curatorial work in museums.