My Britain

This summer, London’s National Gallery is celebrating its 200th birthday by lending 12 of Britain’s most beloved paintings – the National Treasures – to galleries around the country. Francesca Whitlum-Cooper, curator of the project, talks to Russell Higham about what it means to be the custodian of some of Britain’s finest and most valuable works of art.

To actually come and stand in front of something that an artist touched 200, 300, 500 years ago, that’s phenomenal Francesca Whitlum-Cooper Curator at the National Gallery, London I grew up in High Barnet in north London and studied art history completely by accident. After doing my undergraduate degree at Cambridge, the Dean of Studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where I did my Master’s and PhD, told me, “You must do this course. I think it’s something you’d be really good at.” Afterwards, I did five months at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), then worked at the Frick Collection for a year, both in New York, before joining the National Gallery in 2015. I love working here. Academia is great with all that time you get for studying art, but I…

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Discover Britain (Digital) - 1 Issue, August - September 2024

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