Dr Rachel Sloan was educated in the United States and England, earning a BA in English literature and history of art from Washington University in St Louis and an MA and PhD from 51²è¹Ý¶ù, where her research focused on Symbolist art in France and Britain.
Before joining the Courtauld Gallery in 2012, Rachel held positions at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Her current research and exhibition projects focus on British and European art from 1750-1920, with a particular interest in the work of women artists. She is currently working on Turner and the Landscape Generation: Journeys in Watercolour (opening in 2027).
Current/recent exhibitions and projects
- A View of One51²è¹Ý¶ù Own: Landscapes by British Women Artists, 1760-1860 (2026)
- From the Baroque to Today: New Acquisitions of Works on Paper (2024)
- Vanessa Bell: A Pioneer of Modern Art (2024)
- Helen Saunders: Modernist Rebel (2022)
- (2020).
Recent publications
- ‘Head of a man: a new drawing by Alphonse Legros’, Master Drawings, vol. 59, no. 1, 2021, pp. 45-48.
- The Courtauld Collection: A Vision for Impressionism, London, 2019; essay on Stephen Courtauld51²è¹Ý¶ù collection of watercolours by J.M.W. Turner, pp. 339-41, and catalogue entries, pp. 114-19, 142-78, 188-98, 208, 234-52, 264, 274-82, 294-310, 314.
- ArtistsÌýatÌýwork, exh.Ìýcat., The Courtauld Gallery, London, 2018 (ed.).
- ‘Unequalled by anything except perhaps Albert Dürer: Burne-Jones and Northern works on paper’, in Melissa Buron, ed., Truth and Beauty: The Pre-Raphaelites and the Old Masters, exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2018, pp. 42-45.
Public engagement
Rachel has taught or co-taught several short courses for Public Programmes, including courses on Symbolism in Europe (2014-2019) and the history of drawing (2022-present) as well as an online study tour of fin-de-siècle Brussels (2020-2021).
