Desmond Shawe-Taylor

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Desmond Shawe-Taylor CVO was appointed Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures in 2005. He succeeded Christopher Lloyd, CVO, on Mr Lloyd's retirement in July. He had been director of the Dulwich Picture Gallery since 1996. He has overseen the major refurbishment of the Gallery, which was inaugurated by The Queen in 2000.

Shawe-Taylor was educated at Shrewsbury School and University College, Oxford, where he graduated with a first class degree in English. He obtained a further degree in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute and from 1979 to 1996 taught in the History of Art Department at the University of Nottingham.

Desmond Shawe-Taylor has written on a wide range of subjects, including Georgian portraiture, the paintings collection at Dulwich and numerous exhibition catalogues. The Royal Collection, one of the largest and most important art collections in the world, is held in trust by The Queen as Sovereign for her successors and the Nation. The paintings comprise one of the best known and most significant elements of the Collection. Working to the Director of the Royal Collection, the Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures has overall curatorial responsibility for some 7,000 oil paintings and 3,000 miniatures.