Background

Jonathan Brown was born on July 15, 1939, in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. He is a son of Leonard Melvin Brown and Jeanette (Levy) Brown.

Education

In 1960, Brown received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College. Then, he spent a year abroad in Madrid, where he became fascinated with the painter Velázquez, which inspired a lifelong interest in Spanish art. In 1963, he attained a Master of Fine Arts degree from Princeton University. Then, Jonathan continued his education at Princeton University, graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1964.

In 1981, Brown got an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University of Oxford.

Career

During the period from 1965 till 1973, Brown taught at Princeton University. In 1973, he moved to New York University as an associate professor of art, a post he continued to hold till 1975. From 1973 till 1978, Jonathan served as a director of the New York University Institute of Fine Arts, where he promoted the study of Spanish art, a relatively neglected field in the American academy. In 1976, Jonathan was promoted to the post of a professor at New York University and remained in that position until 1984, when he was appointed Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Fine Arts there, a post he still holds.

From 1974 till 1979, Brown worked as a member of the advisory committee of the Department of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. During the period from 1978 till 1979, Brown held a post of a visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Later, between 1981 and 1982, he acted as the Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford. In 1992-1998, he served as a curator of the American Philosophical Society. In 1994, Brown worked as the Andrew W. Mellon lecturer in fine arts at the National Gallery of Art.

In addition, Jonathan has also served as a curator and co-curator of several pioneering exhibitions, including 1976's "Murillo & His Drawings", held at the Princeton University Art Museum, 2006's "Goya's Last Works" and 2010's "The Spanish Manner: Drawings from Ribera to Goya," both held at The Frick Collection, among others. During his time at Princeton University as a faculty member, he also organized "Jusepe de Ribera: Prints and Drawings" at the university's museum, which featured several Spanish drawings from its collection.

In 2010-2011, Jonathan organized a traveling exhibition "Pintura de los reinos. Identidades compartidas en el mundo hispánico" on view at the Museo Nacional del Prado and Palacio Real in Madrid and the Palacio de Iturrbide in Mexico City. In 2013, he acted as a co-curator of "Chefs d'oeuvre de l'art mexicain au musée du Louvre" together with Guillaume Kientz.

Moreover, Brown has writen and edited numerous works on Spanish art, including "Jusepe de Ribera: Prints and Drawings" (1973), "Francisco de Zurbarán" (1974), "Murillo and His Drawings" (1977), "Images and Ideas in Seventeenth-Century Spanish Painting" (1979), "A Palace for a King: The Buen Retiro and the Court of Philip IV" (1980), "Velazquez: Painter and Courtier" (1986), "The Golden Age of Painting in Spain" (1991), "Murillo: Virtuoso Draftsman" (2012) and many others.

During the last decade, Brown has expanded his interests to viceregal Latin American art, particularly the painting of New Spain.

Achievements

• Jonathan Brown is a renowned art historian and author, who gained prominence for his writings on Spanish art, especially Diego Velázquez.
  
  During his lifetime, he received numerous awards, including the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts, Fulbright Fellowship, Order of Isabella the Catholic, American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise and others.

Works

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  • Images and Ideas in Seventeenth-Century Spanish Painting

    (Art historians have often minimized the variety and compl...)

    1979
  • Painting in Latin America, 1550–1820: From Conquest to Independence

    ("Painting in Latin America, 1550–1820: From Conquest to I...)

    2014
  • A Palace for a King: The Buen Retiro and the Court of Philip IV

    (This work recounts how King Philip IV of Spain, at the pr...)

    1980
  • Velazquez: Painter and Courtier

    (This work offers a detailed biography of the seventeenth ...)

    1986
  • The Spanish Manner: Drawings from Ribera to Goya

    (This work presents drawings by Spanish artists over the c...)

    2010
  • Velazquez: The Technique of Genius

    (In this beautiful and engaging book, an art historian and...)

    1998
  • The Golden Age of Painting in Spain

    (El Greco, Ribera, Velazquez, Murillo - these were but a f...)

    1991
  • In the Shadow of Velázquez: A Life in Art History

    (In this lucid, witty book, the eminent art historian Jona...)

    2014
  • Murillo: Virtuoso Draftsman

    (This sumptuous book is a thoroughly revised edition of th...)

    2012
  • Goya's Last Works

    (This work represents a close look at Goya’s final years a...)

    2006
  • Kings and Connoisseurs: Collecting Art in Seventeenth-Century Europe

    (This book is an account of the formation of the first gre...)

    1995
  • Jusepe de Ribera: Prints and Drawings 1973
  • Francisco de Zurbarán 1974
  • Murillo and His Drawings 1977

Membership

Brown is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and American Philosophical Society.

Connections

Jonathan married Sandra (Backer) Brown on July 22, 1966. Their marriage produced three children - Claire, Michael and Daniel.

Father:

Leonard Melvin Brown

Mother:

Jeanette (Levy) Brown

child:

Claire Brown

child:

Michael Brown

child:

Daniel Brown

Wife:

Sandra (Backer) Brown