Professor emeritus Tomas Björk

Dr Tomas Björk, professor emeritus at the University of Stockholm, completed his doctorate in 1997 with a dissertation on the Swedish 19th century history and folklife painter August Malmström. His research primarily concerns 19th-century Swedish and Nordic and visual art, history painting, and postcolonial theory. His publications include a seminal study on Orientalism in Swedish 19th century painting (Bilden av 'Orienten': Exotism i 1800-talets svenska visuella kultur, 2011), which examines the depiction of the Orient and exoticism in Swedish visual culture in the 19th century, as well as a monograph on the life and works of Julius Kronberg, one of Sweden's most acclaimed artists of the 19th century. In addition, Björk has contributed to Signums svenska konsthistoria, as well as several exhibition catalogues and academic anthologies.

Dr Alison Smith

Dr Alison Smith, Director of Collections and Research at the Wallace Collection, London. From 2017 to 2024 she was Chief Curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London and before that, Head of British Art to 1900 at Tate Britain. In 2018 Smith curated 'Edward Burne-Jones' at Tate Britain. She also co-curated a variant, 'Edward Burne-Jones: The Pre-Raphaelites and the North', shown at Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde in Stockholm in 2019 and KODE, Bergen the following year, organized in collaboration with Tate and the Nordic Institute of Art. She is the curator of 'Edvard Munch Portraits' at the National Portrait Gallery, spring 2025.

Carl-Johan Olsson

Carl-Johan Olsson, Curator of 19th-century painting at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Among his key areas are landscape painting of the 19th century, Scandinavian Romanticism and French and Scandinavian Naturalism. He has curated or co-curated exhibitions such as ‘Anders Zorn: Sweden's Master Painter’ (2017); and ‘Carl Larsson, l'imagier de la Suède’ (2014), both at the Petit Palais, Paris, and ‘The Romantic Eye’ at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (2024–25). In addition, Olsson has worked extensively with the collections of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

Christopher Riopelle

Christopher Riopelle is The Neil Westreich Curator of Post 1800 Paintings at The National Gallery, London. He previously held curatorial positions at the Getty Museum, LA, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Riopelle is an expert on European 18th and 19th century art. He has curated or co-curated National Gallery exhibitions on Ingres, landscape sketches, Renoir, Picasso, Richard Hamilton, Delacroix, and Thomas Cole. Riopelle has a particular interest in Nordic art and has curated or co-curated 'Christen Købke: Danish Master of Light' (2010); 'Forests, Rocks, Torrents: Norwegian and Swiss Landscapes from the Lunde Collection' (2011); and 'Peder Balke 1804–1887' (2014). In addition, he has overseen the acquisition at the National Gallery of paintings by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, L.A. Ring, J.C. Dahl, and Peder Balke.

Dr Asher Miller

Dr Asher Miller, Eugene V. Thaw Curator in Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. His focus is on the 19th century, and he has curated or co-curated exhibitions such as 'The Path of Nature: French Paintings from the Wheelock Whitney Collection, 1785–1850' (2013); 'Peder Balke: Painter of Northern Light' (2017); and ‘Delacroix’ (2018–19), the latter organized in collaboration with the Musée du Louvre, Paris. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bowdoin College and a doctorate from City University of New York.

Dr Martin Royalton Kisch

Dr Martin Royalton-Kisch spent his career in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, and was responsible for the outstanding collections of Dutch, Flemish and French prints and drawings from 1982 until his retirement. He has written and lectured widely on European art by the old masters and organized and assisted with exhibitions on many artists and topics including Bruegel, Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, French drawings and on the history of collecting. His chief publications are his books and exhibition catalogues on Adriaen van de Venne’s Album (1988); Drawings by Rembrandt and his Circle (1992); and The Light of Nature: Landscape Drawings and Watercolours by Van Dyck and his Contemporaries (1999). He has also written for many specialist journals and contributed to major exhibition catalogues, including Rembrandt the Printmaker (2000, which he edited); Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Drawings and Prints (2001); and French Drawings: Clouet to Seurat (2005). He is now focussing on the catalogue raisonné, The Drawings of Rembrandt. 

Dr Martin Olin

Dr Martin Olin, associate professor, Director of Collections at Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. His research has focused on art and architecture in the late 17th century, in particular the works and drawing collections of Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, as well as on painting and historiography in Scandinavia during the 19th century. Olin served as Deputy Director of the Swedish Institute in Rome from 2013 to 2015. He has curated several exhibitions at the Nationalmuseum, such as 'Carl Larsson: Friends and Enemies' (2013); and 'Arcadia - A Paradise Lost' (2020), on Italian and French landscape painting in the Classical tradition.

Professor Kilian Heck

Dr Kilian Heck, Professor of Art History at the Caspar David Friedrich Institute, University of Greifswald. Heck specialises in the study of 19th-century European art. His research focuses on the relationship between art, nature, and philosophy, particularly in the context of Romanticism. Heck has contributed significantly to the understanding of German landscape painting, with a particular emphasis on the work of Caspar David Friedrich, as well as the broader artistic movements of the period. He has published extensively on the ways in which art reflects and engages with cultural and intellectual shifts in the 19th century. Through his work, Heck continues to advance scholarly discussions on the intersections of art, nature, and society during the Romantic era. Heck’s publications also includes a monograph on Carl Blechen, and he has been heading the research project ‘Theoria: Romantic Painting in Northern Europe’.