An Van Camp

An Van Camp

Christopher Brown Assistant Keeper of Northern European Art, Ashmolean Museum

Fellow | Dean of Degrees

As the Ashmolean Museum’s curator of Northern European Art, my research is largely focused on art made in the modern-day regions of Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany.

Since I joined the Museum in 2015 I have curated a number of displays and major exhibitions: curator of 'Sensation: Rembrandt's First Paintings' (16 September–27 November 2016, Ashmolean), about Rembrandt’s earliest known paintings featuring allegorical scenes of The Five Senses; curator of ‘Rembrandt in Print’ (2019–2021, Liverpool/Bath/Hitchin/Cork), a touring exhibition showcasing 50 of the Ashmolean’s outstanding Rembrandt prints; co-curator of ‘Young Rembrandt’ in collaboration with Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden, The Netherlands (27 February–1 November 2020, Ashmolean), a major overview of the first ten years of Rembrandt’s career. I also redeveloped the Dutch Gallery (Room 45) into the Dutch and Flemish Gallery in order to include the Ashmolean’s Flemish paintings from the 17th century. Most recently, I collaborated with Museum Plantin-Moretus (Antwerp, Belgium) on a major exhibition, ‘Bruegel to Rubens’ (23 March–23 June 2024). This was the first time that drawings created in the 16th-17th centuries in the Southern Netherlands were presented according to the function they played in the artist’s studio and beyond: as sketches and copies, as designs for other artworks, and finally as independent works made in their own right. The exhibition also focuses on the networks and collaborations between the artists, and their international character; all aspects which are also treated in my book published on the occasion of the exhibition.     

In 2022–23 I led a research project on the Ashmolean’s early-modern German drawings, funded by the Getty Foundation’s The Paper Project and the Oxford-Berlin Research Partnership. Together with guest curator, Mailena Mallach, over 300 drawings were researched, catalogued, and presented on a website including a 15-minute documentary and an interactive webpage, featuring some highlights and new research findings (including a newly discovered drawing by Albrecht Dürer).

As an ongoing project, I am compiling an exhaustive collections catalogue of the Ashmolean’s Dutch and Flemish drawings (around 1,500 sheets) as these were last published by K.T. Parker in 1938. I also have a great passion for old master prints and am currently researching the print collection of Francis Douce, which was bequeathed to the University of Oxford in 1834 and transferred from the Bodleian Library to the Ashmolean Museum in 2003.

I am also responsible for the documentation and digitisation of the graphic collections held at the Western Art Department. In this capacity I train and supervise staff, interns and volunteers working on the collections database, in particular related to works on paper. 
 

Biography:

I am responsible for the Ashmolean’s Dutch, Flemish and German prints, drawings and paintings. I joined the Museum’s Western Art Department in September 2015. I am involved in teaching and research at the University of Oxford (Faculty of History) and am the Dean of Degrees at St Cross College.

Previously I worked in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, first as Cataloguer of the Dutch and Flemish prints before 1900 (2006–10 during which I created almost 15,000 records for the Museum’s online database) and later as Curator of Dutch and Flemish Prints and Drawings (2010–15). At the British Museum I curated several displays on the graphic works of Adriaen van Ostade and David Teniers the Younger (2010), and Hercules Segers (2012). In 2015 I co-curated a major international exhibition on metalpoint drawings, 'Drawing in Silver and Gold', shown at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the British Museum in London. I was also the Lead Curator of eight Asahi Shimbun Objects-in-Focus Displays at The British Museum (2014–15).

Before I joined The British Museum I studied History, Archaeology, Art History and Museum Studies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) and University College London.

I am a member of the editorial board of two journals, Print Quarterly and Master Drawings. I was part of the Steering Committee of the 2024 HNA Conference, held in Cambridge and London. I was Chair of the Print Curators’ Forum (2019–2023) and a Programme Committee Member of CODART (2010–17). In 2013 I was the laureate of the Christoffel Plantin Prize which recognises a Belgian living abroad who is active in the cultural, artistic, scientific or social sector and whose work contributes to the prestige of Belgium abroad.