Impostors Unmasked by Sir Jonathan Marsden

To mark the publication this autumn of European Sculpture in the Collection of His Majesty The King, the first ever catalogue raisonné of this part of the Royal Collection, Jonathan Marsden will introduce works of art dating from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century which for much of their lives have lived under assumed names, and explain the various ways in which their true identities have come to light. Although a portrait in marble or bronze might seem to guarantee perpetual fame, it is an ironic reflection that these – just like the painted portraits which in country houses can pass down the centuries in disguise – can also become victims of ‘identity theft’.

Jonathan Marsden was Director of the Royal Collection and Surveyor of The Queen’s Works of Art from 2010 to 2017, having previously served as Deputy Surveyor since 1996. He previously worked for the National Trust as a curator in North Wales and Oxfordshire. He has served as a trustee of numerous arts and heritage organisations and is currently a Trustee of English Heritage and a Commissioner of Historic England.