Hispanist Jonathan Brown, a great expert on Velázquez, dies at the age of 82

He was barely 20 years old when Jonathan Brown (Springfield, Massachusetts, 1939) discovered paradise. He found it at the moment his eyes fell in front of Velázquez's

in the Prado Museum. It was 1958 and his life was never the same again. That young student became a world authority on the Spanish Golden Age and, especially, on Velázquez, whom he described as an absolute and unsurpassed genius. Sir Jonathan Brown has died this Tuesday at the age of 82, the Prado Museum has confirmed in a Twitter message in which it deeply regrets the loss of the researcher and recalls the close relationship he had with this institution throughout his life. He was a professor at the Institute of Fine Arts of the University of New York and worked in numerous museums in his country as an advisor.

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"There are other 'velázquez' to discover"

As a specialist in Spanish painting and Spanish-American art of the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as in the history of collecting, Brown's work is essential for art lovers and researchers. The art gallery recalls on its official website that the Hispanist was curator of various exhibitions at the Prado, such as the one dedicated in 1999 to Velázquez, Rubens and Van Dyck, in commemoration of the fourth centenary of the Spanish painter's birth, or the one entitled

, organized together with John Elliott in 2002. He also published basic works for the understanding of Spanish Baroque painting, among which the museum highlights

(1981),

(1986) ,

(1981, republished in 2003, in collaboration with John Elliott),

(1990) and

(1995). In 1993, 1998 and 2002 he participated in the annual series of conferences organized by the Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado.

In January 2012, when preparing his third chair for the Prado, he gave an interview to this newspaper for which he himself carefully chose the setting. The place for the conversation was what he called "paradise", the XII room of the Prado Museum, the central space of Velázquez's work, dedicated to his production as a portraitist of the family of Felipe IV. Nothing in the world could beat

flanked by portraits of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria and Prince Baltasar Carlos the hunter. When asked to choose his favorite work for the photographs, he chose the portrait of Prince Baltasar Carlos on horseback. "Velázquez's children are sublime," the Hispanist commented then.

We deeply mourn the loss of Jonathan Brown.

Prestigious American hispanist and great expert on Velázquez, we fondly remember the close relationship he had with the Prado Museum https://t.co/udCFWkeXiM pic.twitter.com/mYEeFGJNyr

– Prado Museum (@museodelprado) January 18, 2022

The American Hispanist was a member of the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts, the American Academy of Arts and the San Carlos Academy of Valencia.

In his career he won awards such as the Gold Medal for Fine Arts, in 1986;

the Grand Cross of Alfonso X el Sabio, in 1996, and the Elio Antonio Nebrija Award from the University of Salamanca, in 1997.

Since that first visit as a student, Brown has returned to the museum dozens of times, spending hundreds of hours in front of its masterpieces.

"It is the best art gallery of ancient art in the world," he assured without the slightest hint of doubt.

And there he met Velázquez, his true god and for whom he felt love at first sight.

“With Velázquez you never leave feeling that you have discovered everything.

His mystery is infinite.

You know you will always see something else.

He is, as Manet said, the painter of painters, because he always has something more to show you”.