Karen Hearn

Historian of British art and culture c.1500-c.1710 and exhibition curator. Previously the Curator of 16th & 17th Century British Art at the Tate Galleries (1992-2012). Honorary Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, 最准的六合彩论坛.

k.hearn@ucl.ac.uk

Present areas of research

Representations of pregnancy
Artistic migration between the Netherlands and Britain, c.1500-c.1710
The works, biography and context of the painter Cornelius Johnson [Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen] (1593-1661)
Anthony Van Dyck's London Studio
Portraiture in Britain and the Northern and Southern Netherlands during the 16th & 17th Centuries
Women's patronage of the arts in the 16th & 17th Centuries
Co-editor of RKD Studies: Gerson Digital: Britain () - part of the newly translated and re-annotated online edition of Horst Gerson's 1942/1983 Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holl盲ndischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts [The Dispersal and Legacy of Dutch 17th-Century Painting], on the transnational mobility of artists from the Low Countries during the early modern period (2022-23).

Exhibitions curated

1995-6: Curator of major Tate exhibition,听Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630. Editor and principal author of catalogue. Received European Woman of Achievement Award.
1997-8: Co-curator of听In Celebration: The Art of the Country House, Tate Gallery exhibition. Catalogue essay on 鈥楽ixteenth and Seventeenth Century Portraits in Country Houses鈥�.
1999-2000: Co-curator of听A Tudor Mystery: The Allegorical Portrait of Sir John Luttrell, Courtauld Galleries, London. Booklet essay on 鈥楬ans Eworth: Traces of a Biography鈥�.
2002-3: Curator of Tate Britain exhibition听Marcus Gheeraerts II: Elizabethan Artist. Author of accompanying Tate book.
2004: Curator of small exhibition听Talking Peace 1604: The Somerset House Conference Paintings, at The Gilbert Collection, London. Author of accompanying catalogue booklet.
2005-6: Curator of exhibition听Nathaniel Bacon: Artist, Gentleman and Gardener, Tate Britain. Author of accompanying Tate book.
Oct-Dec 2006: Co-curator of exhibition at the Rubenshuis, Antwerp,听Royalist Refugees: The Rubenshuis years of William and Margaret Cavendish (1648-1660). Author of catalogue essay and entries.
Feb-May 2009: Curator of major Tate Britain exhibition,听Van Dyck and Britain. Editor and principal author of catalogue.
Jan-Aug 2012: Co-curator of听Migrations: Journeys into British Art, Tate Britain, and author of catalogue essays 鈥楶ortraiture鈥� and 鈥楴ew Genres鈥�, pp.16-31.
Dec 2011-May 2012: Curator of听Rubens and Britain听exhibition, Tate Britain, and author of accompanying Tate publication,听Rubens and Britain.
Oct 2013 - March 2014: Co-curator of听West Country to World's End: The South West in the Tudor Age, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.
April to September 2015:听Curator of Cornelius Johnson: Charles I's Forgotten Painter, at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
September 2016 to April 2017: Curator of听Portrait Miniatures in the Portland Collection, display at The Harley Gallery, Welbeck
24 January to 16 March; and from early July to 23 August 2020: Curator of Portraying Pregnancy: from Holbein to Social Media, exhibition at The Foundling Museum, London.
2026, forthcoming:听 Curator of听Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen:听exhibition at the Stadhuismuseum, Zierikzee, The Netherlands.听

Other publications

'Henry Gibbs: Painter and Gentleman',听Burlington Magazine, February 1998, pp.99-101
'Insiders or Outsiders? Overseas-born Artists at the Jacobean Court鈥�, in Randolph Vigne and Charles Littleton, eds.,听From Strangers to Citizens, Sussex Academic Press, Brighton and Portland, 2001, pp.117-126
鈥樷€淥nly Matrimony Maketh Children to be Certain 鈥︹€�: Two Elizabethan Pregnancy Portraits鈥�, (co-authored with Pauline Croft),听British Art Journal, vol. 3, no. 3, Autumn 2002, pp.19-24
鈥楢 Question of Judgement: Lucy Harington, Countess of Bedford, as Art Patron and Collector鈥�, in听The Evolution of English Collecting, Edward Chaney, ed., Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2003.
鈥楾he English Career of Cornelius Johnson鈥�, in听Dutch and Flemish Artists in Britain 1550-1700, E Domela, M van de Meij-Tolsma, J Roding, E J Sluijter, B Westerweel, eds, Leiden, 2003, pp. 113 - 29.
'Merchant Patrons for the Painter Siberechts鈥�, in听City Merchants and the Arts 1670-1720, Mireille Galinou, ed., Wetherby, 2004
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004 and online,听entries on Sir Nathaniel Bacon, John Bettes, Marcus Gheeraerts I, Marcus Gheeraerts II, George Gower, John Hayls, Cornelius Johnson, Cornelis Ketel, Robert and William Peake, and Paul van Somer.
Nathaniel Bacon: Artist, Gentleman, Gardener, Tate Publishing, 2005.
Nicholas Hilliard, Unicorn Press, London 2005.
鈥楨lizabeth I and the Spanish Armada: A Painting and its Afterlife鈥�,听Transactions of the Royal Historical Society听2004, vol.14, 2005, pp.123-40.
鈥樷€漇aved through childbearing鈥�: a Godly Context for Elizabethan Pregnancy Portraits鈥�, in Tara Hamling and Richard L Williams, eds,听Art Re-formed, Newcastle, 2007, pp.65-70.
鈥榃illiam Cavendish鈥檚 Horse Portraits鈥�, in听Horses & Landscapes, The Harley Gallery, Worksop, 2008.
'Lady Anne Clifford's "Great Triptych"', in听Lady Anne Clifford: Culture, Patronage and Gender in Seventeenth-Century Britain, Karen Hearn and Lynn Hulse, eds, Leeds, 2009, pp. 1 - 24.
鈥楾he Painters鈥�, in Mark Evans, ed,听The Lumley Inventory and Pedigree, London, 2010, pp. 55-58.
鈥楾he full-length portrait in early 17th-century Britain鈥�, in听The Suffolk Collection, Laura Houliston, ed, Swindon, 2012, pp.28-39.
鈥楲ely and Holland鈥�, in听Peter Lely: A Lyrical Vision, Courtauld Gallery exhibition catalogue, 2012, pp.26-39.
鈥樷€淭hose Spots for Vanity鈥�: A beauty patch revealed in a portrait by Cornelis Jonson鈥�, in听Face Book: Studies on Dutch & Flemish Portraiture of the 16th-18th Centuries, Leiden, 2012, pp.345-50
鈥楳erchant Class Portraiture in Tudor London: 鈥淐ustomer鈥� Smith鈥檚 Commission, 1579/80鈥� in听Treasures of the Royal Courts: Tudors, Stuarts and Russian Tsars, V&A exhibition catalogue, 2013, pp. 36-43.
Co-authored with Natasha Walker & Joyce H. Townsend, '', in Tate Papers, online, autumn 2013.
'Art in Britain between 1530 and 1620' and 'Nicholas Hilliard', in听West Country to World's End: The South West in the Tudor Age, exhibition catalogue, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter,听 2013, pp. 64-72 and 73-83.
in听CODART,听The World of Dutch and Flemish Art, 15th Anniversary Online Publication, The Hague, 2013.
鈥楶ortraits of Ben Jonson鈥�, essay in the online edition of听The Cambridge Works of Ben Jonson, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
'Heraldry in Tudor and Jacobean Portraits', in听Heralds and Heraldry in Shakespeare's England, ed. Nigel Ramsay, Shaun Tyas, 2014, pp. 220 - 35.
'"Picture-drawer, born at Antwerp": Migrant Artists in Jacobean London', in听Painting in Britain 1500-1630:听Production, Influences & Patronage, British Academy, 2015, pp. 278-287.
'"To Russia and Muscovia 鈥�": Thomas Smith鈥檚 Family and its International Network', in听Emerging Empires: England and Muscovy in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages, Moscow and London, 2015.
Cornelius Johnson, London (2015).
', in听CODART ezine 7, winter 2015.
'Revising the Visage: Patches and Beauty Spots in 17th-century English and Dutch Painted Portraits', in听Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 78, no.4, winter 2015/2016, pp.809-823.
'Painting on Wooden Panel', in听The Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Shakespeare, Bruce R. Smith ed, vol. 1, New York & Cambridge, 2016, pp.440-48.
'The National and Professional Identities of Cornelius Johnson', and 'Cornelius Johnson 鈥� Timeline', in听Cornelius Johnson: Painter to King & Country, exhibition catalogue, The Weiss Gallery, London (2016), pp. 8鈥�15 and 98鈥�105.
'The "small oil colour pictures" of Cornelius Johnson (1593-1661)', in听Portrait Miniatures, Artists, Functions & Collections, The Tansey Miniatures Foundation听(2018), pp.179-88.
'L'atelier londinese di Antoon van Dyck [Van Dyck's London Studio]', essay in Van Dyck: Pittore di Corte, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Sabauda, Royal Museums, Turin (2018), pp.90-99.
'Painted Portraits and the Paston Family's Collection of Paintings' essay (plus catalogue entries) in听The Paston Treasure: Microcosm of the Known World, exhibition catalogue, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, and Norwich Castle Museum (2018), pp.200-203, 456-7, 495.听
Co-authored with Helen Hackett, 'What did Elizabeth I really look like at Sixty?' for BBC History Extra 听听(2018).
鈥�"Wrought with flowers and leaves": Embroidery Depicted in Late Sixteenth- and Early Seventeenth-Century British Portraits 鈥� the Era of Rubens', in听Undressing Rubens: Fashion and Painting in Seventeenth-Century Antwerp, ed. Lieneke Nijkamp & Abigail D. Newman, London & Turnhout (2019), pp.31-46.
Catalogue entries for the exhibition听Rubens and His Age:听the Century of Flemish Baroque Painting,听Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (2019).
Portraying Pregnancy: from Holbein to Social Media, London (2020)
'鈥淐uriously painted, drawn, & understood鈥�: Adriaen Hanneman鈥檚 portrait of Cornelius Johnson and his wife and son', in听Connoisseurship: Essays in Honour of Fred G. Meijer,听ed. Charles Dumas et al, Leiden (2020), pp.163-170.
'Anthonis Mor: Portraits of Sir Thomas Gresham & his wife Anne Ferneley', in听100 Masterpieces Dutch and Flemish Art (1350-1750): CODART Canon, The Hague (2021), pp.90-91 (and, in reduced form, online:听).
'A newly identified portrait by Sir Nathaniel Bacon', Burlington Magazine, vol.164, July 2022, pp.641-9.
听'Portrait of a poisoner? An early 17th-century British female portrait reconsidered', in Campaspe Talks Back: Women who Made a Difference in the Arts in the Early Modern Low Countries,听(forthcoming, 2024).
'Artisan knowledge: The Case of Cornelis Ketel', in The Oxford Handbook of Travel, Identity and Race in Early Modern England, 1500-1700, ed. Nandini Das, Oxford University Press (forthcoming, 2025).
'Painters and Patronage at the London Court of James VI & I', in听The World of King James VI & I, exhibition catalogue, Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh (forthcoming, 2025).
'Texts and Painted Portraits鈥� in Europe in the World: A Literary History, 1545-1659/61, ed. Warren Boutcher, Oxford University Press (forthcoming). Part of the five-year (2022-26) European Research Council funded project 鈥楾extuality and Diversity: A Literary History of Europe and its Global Connections, 1545-1661.
鈥�"Choice pieces": The Portraits of Lucy Harington Russell', in听The Cultural Influence of Lucy Harington Russell, Countess of Bedford, ed. N N W Akkerman & and D S Smith (forthcoming).
'Elizabeth I at Sixty', co-authored with Helen Hackett, in Women and Cultures of Portraiture in the British Literary Renaissance, ed. Yasmin Arshad & Chris Laoutaris (forthcoming).
'鈥淒earest above all鈥�: Images of Mildred Cooke Cecil (1526-1589)', in Burghley at 500: Quincentennial Essays on William Cecil, ed. Janet Dickinson & Neil Younger, (forthcoming).听听听

Media

'"The late K. & Q. in little": the small-scale full-length royal portraits in the collection of Charles I and Henrietta Maria' - online paper at the conference on Charles I: King & Collector, at Paul Mellon Centre/Royal Academy, London, 12 April 2018 ()
Online lecture, February 2021,听Magnifying Miniatures: Nicholas Hilliard & Isaac Oliver in The Portland Collection听().
Online, The听University of Hertfordshire Chancellor's Lecture 2021 -听Mildred Cooke Cecil: Pregnancy Portrayed in Elizabethan England听().
The Isabel & Alfred Bader Lecture in European Art, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, April 2022:听 '鈥淏ig-Bellied Women": Portraying Pregnancy in 16th- and 17th-Century England':听听.