Helen Hillyard

Helen Hillyard
EducationUniversity of Cambridge
Courtauld Institute of Art
OccupationsCurator, art historian
EmployerDulwich Picture Gallery
Known forCuratorial and scholarly work on seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art
TitleHead of Collection

Helen Hillyard is a British curator and art historian specialising in seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art.[1][2] She is Head of Collection at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London.[3][4]

Her work encompasses collection research, exhibitions and interpretive projects concerned with historic painting and its relationship with contemporary audiences.[4][5] She has also contributed public commentary on discoveries and reunions involving seventeenth-century Dutch paintings.[6]

Career

After her studies, Hillyard was selected for the 2013–14 National Gallery Curatorial Traineeship Programme, supported by the Art Fund and the Vivmar Foundation.[7] At the National Gallery she worked on Strange Beauty: Masters of the German Renaissance, gallery rehangs and public programmes before undertaking a placement at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.[7]

In Birmingham, she researched and redisplayed the museum's seventeenth-century and Baroque galleries. The project included consultation with local audiences and schools and the development of accompanying learning materials.[8][9]

Hillyard joined the Dulwich Picture Gallery in 2015 as Assistant Curator.[5] One of her early projects there was supporting art historian Ellinoor Bergvelt in completing the gallery's first comprehensive catalogue of its Dutch and Flemish paintings, published in 2016.[4][10] She also supported chief curator Xavier Bray on Making Discoveries, a series of displays examining works attributed to or associated with Anthony van Dyck, Gerrit Dou, Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt.[11]

She became Acting Curator in April 2021 and was appointed Curator later that year.[5][12] In 2020, she contributed to the complete re-presentation of the gallery's collection, described by the institution as its most ambitious rehang since 2013.[5][13]

Her curatorial work has focused on Dutch and Flemish Old Master painting, storytelling in museum display, and approaches designed to make historic collections accessible and relevant to contemporary audiences.[4][14][15]

Hillyard developed Unlocking Paintings, a continuing series inviting artists, researchers and communities to offer new perspectives on the collection. Its first display, True Crime: The Case of Philips Wouwerman in 2022, examined historical allegations that the Dutch painter Philips Wouwerman had appropriated drawings by Pieter van Laer.[4][16][17]

At Dulwich, she has described her curation as a form of mediation between the past and the present, inviting new public engagement with the collection.[4] In 2024 she became Head of Collection.[4]

Exhibitions

Hillyard co-curated the exhibition Rembrandt's Light (2019–2020) with Jennifer Scott and contributed to its accompanying catalogue.[18][19] The exhibition brought together 35 paintings, drawings and etchings and used lighting developed with cinematographer Peter Suschitzky to explore Rembrandt's use of light as a narrative device.[19] It received extensive critical coverage, including reviews in The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Arts Desk.[20][21][22]

In 2025, Hillyard curated Anna Ancher: Painting Light in partnership with Skagens Museum.[23] The exhibition, presenting approximately 40 paintings, was the first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom devoted to the Danish painter Anna Ancher.[24][25] Hillyard co-authored the accompanying catalogue with Mette Harbo Lehmann of Skagens Museum.[26] The exhibition was reviewed in The Guardian, Apollo, the British Art Journal, The Arts Desk and Studio International.[27][28][29][30][31]

Publications

  • Scott, Jennifer; Hillyard, Helen (2019). Rembrandt's Light. Philip Wilson Publishers. ISBN 9781781300923.
  • Hillyard, Helen. “Defining the Hybrid Genre in the Context of Saenredam's Perspectives.” In Büttner, Nils; Ebert-Schifferer, Sybille, eds. (2021). Questioning Pictorial Genres in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Art. Turnhout: Brepols. ISBN 9782503596242..[32]
  • Hillyard, Helen. Entries on Willem van de Velde, Jan Both and Jacob Moscher in The Netherlands in the Times of Rembrandt. Warsaw: Royal Castle Museum. 2021..
  • Hillyard, Helen; Scott, Jennifer (2024). Unlocking Paintings: A Guide to Historic Art. Dulwich Picture Gallery. ISBN 9781898519515.[33][34]
  • Harbo Lehmann, Mette; Hillyard, Helen (2025). Anna Ancher: Painting Light. London: Dulwich Picture Gallery. ISBN 9781898519546.

References

  1. ↑ Hillyard, Helen. "Guest Editor: Helen Hillyard". London Architecture Diary. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  2. ↑ "Helen Hillyard". Bloomsbury. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  3. ↑ "Art and Age in Dulwich Picture Gallery's Collection". Dulwich Picture Gallery. 27 February 2026. Retrieved 19 March 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Helen Hillyard". CODART. December 2024. Retrieved 19 March 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Helen Hillyard Appointed as New Curator of Dulwich Picture Gallery". CODART. 8 November 2021. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  6. ↑ CBC Radio (8 July 2016). "Pair of 'exquisite' 17th century Dutch paintings reunited after nearly four centuries". Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  7. 1 2 "National Gallery Curatorial Traineeships 2013-14". National Gallery. Retrieved 19 March 2026.
  8. ↑ "National Gallery and Art Fund curatorial traineeships programme continues to foster new talent". National Gallery. January 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  9. ↑ "Study day: New approaches to displaying 17th-century art at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery". National Gallery. 25 June 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  10. ↑ "Catalogue of Dutch and Flemish paintings in the Dulwich Picture Gallery published". CODART. 5 October 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  11. ↑ "Am I Rembrandt?". CODART. 8 November 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  12. ↑ "Moves". Museums Association. 17 January 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  13. ↑ "Helen Hillyard". For Art's Sake. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  14. ↑ "Jennifer Scott shares Dulwich Picture Gallery's plans". The Wick. 17 May 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  15. ↑ "Conversation 3 — Dulwich Picture Gallery — Soane in The Colour Palace". Apple Podcasts (Podcast). 27 July 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  16. ↑ "Dulwich Picture Gallery". The Dulwich Society. Summer 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  17. ↑ "True Crime: The Case of Philips Wouwerman". CODART. 23 April 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  18. ↑ "Helen Hillyard". British Art Network. Retrieved 19 March 2026.
  19. 1 2 Scott, Jennifer; Hillyard, Helen (2019). Rembrandt's Light. Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 9781781300923.
  20. ↑ "Rembrandt's Light review – glorious art needs no gimmicks". The Guardian. 1 October 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  21. ↑ "If Rembrandt were alive today, he would be a cinematographer". The Daily Telegraph. 28 September 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  22. ↑ Hallett, Florence (11 October 2019). "Rembrandt's Light, Dulwich Picture Gallery review – a film-maker out of time?". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  23. ↑ "See the light: the beautiful, and radical, art of Anna Ancher – review". The Guardian. 4 November 2025. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
  24. ↑ "Dulwich Picture Gallery announces 2025 exhibition programme with solo shows by three remarkable female artists". Dulwich Picture Gallery. Retrieved 19 March 2026.
  25. ↑ "Anna Ancher: Painting Light". Dulwich Picture Gallery. Retrieved 19 March 2026.
  26. ↑ Harbo Lehmann, Mette; Hillyard, Helen (2025). Anna Ancher: Painting Light. London: Dulwich Picture Gallery. ISBN 9781898519546.
  27. ↑ "See the light: the beautiful, and radical, art of Anna Ancher – review". The Guardian. 4 November 2025. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
  28. ↑ Waterson, Lucy (14 November 2025). "How Anna Ancher saw the light in Denmark". Apollo. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
  29. ↑ Conway Morris, Roderick (4 November 2025). "Anna Ancher: Painting Light". British Art Journal. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
  30. ↑ "Anna Ancher: Painting Light, Dulwich Picture Gallery review – intimate gems". The Arts Desk. 13 November 2025. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
  31. ↑ "Anna Ancher: Painting Light". Studio International. 12 November 2025. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
  32. ↑ "Questioning Pictorial Genres in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Art". Brepols. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  33. ↑ "Unlocking Paintings". ACC Art Books. 8 January 2024. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  34. ↑ Hillyard, Helen; Scott, Jennifer (6 February 2024). "Why Anthony van Dyck was summoned to paint a recently deceased noblewoman". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
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