On January 8, 2026, Sir Christopher White passed away at the age of 95. He led a long and distinguished career as a curator, dealer, museum director, and indefatigable writer of scholarly works that include studies of Rembrandt, Rubens, and Van Dyck; several thorough collection catalogues, many for the Royal Collection’s holdings of Dutch and Flemish art; and a notable catalogue raisonné of Rembrandt’s prints (co-authored with Karel Boon) that appeared in 1969 and remained the principal reference work until the appearance of the New Hollstein volumes in 2013. At the time of his death, he was at work on his contributions for the forthcoming catalogue of Flemish drawings at the Courtauld Gallery (expected 2027).
In Rubens he saw what he declared the most representative figure of an era, and in Rembrandt an oeuvre that embodied a predilection for variety. This expansiveness could be said to typify Christopher White’s own approach to his career and writings. After his education (BA, University of London; MA, University of Oxford; PhD, Courtauld Institute), his first job was as Assistant Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, a position he held from 1954 until 1965. It was there where he oversaw and studied closely one of the world’s most significant collections of Rembrandt’s prints and drawings. He moved to the trade in 1965, working as Director of Sales at P. & D. Colnaghi, London, until 1971. He then returned to the museum world, this time in America, to become Curator of Graphic Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, for two years. In 1973, he was appointed director of the Paul Mellon Centre in London, where he also taught many Yale students as an adjunct professor for that university and as Associate Director for the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven. Finally, he served as director of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, where he was held in high regard, from 1985 until his retirement in 1997.
His early works include the popular studies Rembrandt and His World (1964) and Rubens and His World (1968), followed shortly thereafter by his major study, Rembrandt as an Etcher (1969, 2nd ed. 1999), published the same year as the aforementioned catalogue raisonné of Rembrandt’s prints that served both as contribution to the Hollstein series and as an independent publication. In later years, aside from Peter Paul Rubens: Man and Artist (1987), he produced a number of collection catalogues for the Royal Collection, including: The Dutch Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen (1982, 2nd ed. 2015), The Dutch and Flemish Drawings at Windsor Castle (1994, with Charlotte Crawley), and The Later Flemish Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen (2007). He was knighted for these efforts in 2001. At the age of 91, he published Anthony Van Dyck and the Art of Portraiture (2021). His latest book, The Adventures of an Art Historian (2024), is, as the title suggests, a witty memoir.
It is worth taking a moment to dwell specifically on what this author considers to be his magnum opus, Rembrandt as an Etcher. It is a thoughtful and closely observed study of the artist’s prints that can boast a truly impressive longevity for having been published nearly six decades ago. It could be said to anticipate by many years a study such as Ernst van de Wetering’s Rembrandt: The Painter at Work (1997). In the second edition of Rembrandt as an Etcher, published thirty years after the first, White deftly updated the book in accordance with studies that had emerged in intervening years. Remarkably, it remains a standard work. “But how will you get around Christopher White?” was a phrase I heard often as a Ph.D. student venturing to write about Rembrandt’s state changes. His comments on the results, generous and encouraging despite any criticism, remain a model for me for how scholars in the field can and should encourage future generations.
Robert Fucci
University of Amsterdam
Editor, Master Drawings