Christopher White (art historian)


Sir Christopher John White CVO FBA was a British art historian and curator. He was 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.

Life and career

White received a BA from the University of London, followed by an MA from the University of Oxford, and a PhD at the Courtauld Institute, University of London. He then joined the British Museum's Department of Prints and Drawings in 1954. From 1965 to 1971, he was director of Old Master sales at Colnaghi in London, then moving to be curator of graphic arts for the National Gallery of Art 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 in Oxford and a fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, retiring in 1997.
In 1997, White became a trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He was also vice-chairman of the British Institute of Florence and a trustee of the Mauritshuis in The Hague. He was knighted in the 2001 New Year Honours for services to art history.
White was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1989. He was an honorary research fellow at the Courtauld Institute.
White died on 8 January 2026, at the age of 95.

Selected works

His books include:Rembrandt as an Etcher: A Study of the Artist at Work, 1969