Dr Rebecca Birrell
Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow
Research areas
I am an art historian, writer and curator. I am currently a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at University of St Andrews (May 2023-May 2026). My second book, an art historical novel, Venus, Vanishing, will be published by Picador in the UK and Henry Holt & Company in the US in 2026.
My first book, This Dark Country: Women Artists, Still Life and Intimacy in the Early 20th Century was published by Bloomsbury in 2021. It was awarded an Antonia Frazer Award for a Biography in Progress by the Society of Authors in 2019. A Guardian/Observer Art Book of the Year 2021, it was described as ‘a striking act of collective empathy.’ It was also longlisted for the William M B Berger Prize for British Art History 2022 and shortlisted for the PEN Hessell Titlman Prize, 2022.
I was Curator of 19th and 20th Century Paintings and Drawings at The Fitzwilliam Museum between 2021-2023. I curated the rehang of Galleries 1-5 that opened in March 2024.
I continue to work on curatorial projects and write regularly for exhibition catalogues. This includes: an essay for Megan Rooney: Echoe and Hours, Kettle's Yard (August 2024); the lead essay for Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour, MK One Gallery (October 2024); an essay for Seeing Each Other, Pallant House Gallery (May 2025); an essay on Gwen John’s nudes for Gwen John: Strange Beauties, National Museum Cardiff (February 2026 - touring to National Galleries Scotland, National Museum of Women in the Arts and Yale Centre for British Art).
I collaborated with Dior on a series of videos about still life for Jonathon Anderson’s Summer 2026 show.
My next project is on women artists painting the nude. I gave an invited lecture on the subject at the Clarke Art Institute in the summer of 2025.