Art historian, architectural historian, author and art gallery curator
Employer(s)
National Gallery, London
Allan John Witney Braham (19 August 1937 – 3 March 2011) was an English art historian, architectural historian, author and art gallery curator.[1] He was Deputy Director at the
National Gallery, London.[2]
Biography
Braham was born in
Croydon,
Surrey, to Dudley Braham and Florence (née Mears).[1] He studied at
Dulwich College in south London,[1] then at the
Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, gaining a BA in 1960 and a PhD (on François Mansart's drawings for the Louvre) in 1967.[3] Photographs contributed by Allan Braham to the Courtauld Institute of Art's Conway Library are currently being digitised as part of the Courtauld Connects project.[4][5]
Braham worked at the
National Gallery, London, first as Assistant Keeper (1962-1973), then as Deputy Keeper (1973-1978), then as Keeper (1978-1989)[6] and Deputy Director (1978-1992).[2] Braham coordinated numerous exhibitions, and contributed to the accompanying catalogues.[7][8][9] He was sole or co-author on books on art and architecture, and numerous scholarly articles, in particular for
The Burlington Magazine, and for the
Gazette des Beaux-Arts in France.
Braham married Helen Clare Butterworth on 15 June 1963 (marriage dissolved in 2004); they had two daughters and lived in North London.[1] Braham died in London in 2011.[10][11]
The Rokeby Venus, Velázquez, London: National Gallery, 1976.[22]
The Architecture of the French Enlightenment, London: Thames and Hudson, 1980, 1989.[23][24]
El Greco to Goya: the taste for Spanish paintings in Britain and Ireland ... (book with introduction and catalogue by Allan Braham), London: National Gallery, 1981.[25]
Italian paintings of the sixteenth century, London: National Gallery in association with William Collins, 1985.[26]
Books with co-authors
L'église du dome, Allan Braham and Anthony Blunt, London: Warburg Institute, 1960.[27]
The Spanish School by Neil MacLaren, 2nd edition revised by Allan Braham, London: National Gallery, 1970.[28]
François Mansart, Allan Braham and Peter R Smith, London: Zwemmer, 1973.[29] The book was developed from both writers' PhD theses for the Courtauld Institute.[3]
Carlo Fontana: the drawings at Windsor Castle, Allan Braham and Hellmut Hager, Royal Library (Windsor Castle), London: Zwemmer, 1977.[30]
Piranesi as archaeologist and French architecture in the late eighteenth century, Allan Braham and Anthony Blunt, Rome: Edizioni dell'Elefante, 1978.[8]
Exhibition catalogues
Wright of Derby: Mr & Mrs Coltman (exhibition organised and booklet written by Allan Braham), London: National Gallery, 1986.[7]
Giovanni Battista Moroni: 400th anniversary exhibition (introduction and catalogue by Allan Braham), National Gallery, London: Hillingdon Press, 1978.[31]
The National Gallery lends Italian Renaissance portraits, an exhibition organised in conjunction with the Arts Council of Great Britain (introduction and catalogue by Allan Braham), London: National Gallery, 1979.[9]
Articles
'Mansart studies: 1: the Val-de-Grâce', The Burlington Magazine (ed. Benedict Nicolson), pp. 351–363, 1963.[32]
'Mansart studies: 4: the Château of Gesvres', The Burlington Magazine (ed. Benedict Nicolson), Vol. 106, pp. 359–363, 1964.[33]
'Archbishop Fernando de Valdés y Llanos: the problem of Velázquez's portrait', The Burlington Magazine (ed. Benedict Nicolson), Vol. 110, pp. 401–404, 1968.[34]
'Drawings for Soufflot's Sainte Geneviève', The Burlington Magazine (ed. Benedict Nicolson), Vol. 113, pp. 582–590, 1971.[35]
'A reappraisal of "The introduction of the cult of Cybele at Rome" by Mantegna', The Burlington Magazine (ed. Benedict Nicolson), Vol. 115, pp. 457–463, 1973.[36]
'The Emperor Sigismund and the Santa Maria Maggiore Altar-piece', The Burlington Magazine (ed. Benedict Nicolson), Vol. 122, pp. 106–112, 1980.[37]
'Murillo's portrait of Don Justino de Neve', The Burlington Magazine (ed. Benedict Nicolson), Vol. 122, pp. 192–194, 1980.[38]
Articles with co-authors
'Louis le Vau's projects for the Louvre and the Colonnade: 2', Allan Braham and Mary Whiteley, Gazette des beaux-arts, pp. 347–362, 1964.[39]
'Mansart studies: 5: the church of the Minimes', Allan Braham and Peter Smith, The Burlington Magazine (ed. Benedict Nicolson), Vol. 107, pp. 123–132, 1965.[40]
'François Mansart's work at the Hôtel de Chavigny', Allan Braham and Peter Smith, Gazette des beaux-arts, pp. 317–330, 1965.[41]
^Tadgell, Christopher (1 October 1983). "Review: The Architecture of the French Enlightenment by Allan Braham". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 42 (3): 302–303.
doi:
10.2307/989957.