Dr Karen Serres is Senior Curator of Paintings at the Courtauld Gallery, responsible for the care and display of the collection of paintings up to 1900.
She received her training in art history and museum studies at the Ecole du Louvre (1997) and the Sorbonne (1998) in Paris. She completed her MA (1999) and PhD (2004) at the Courtauld Institute, where her research focused on French and Italian Baroque painting. She was then appointed Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, working on French and Italian painting and sculpture. She later became the Robert H. Smith Research Curator in the Sculpture Department of that institution. In 2009, she was named the Nina and Lee Griggs Associate Curator of European Art at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. She returned to the Courtauld as Schroder Foundation Curator of Paintings in 2012.
Current and recent projects
Karen recently curated the exhibitionsÌýMonet and London. Views of the ThamesÌý(2024) andÌýVan Gogh. Self-PortraitsÌý(2022).
She was heavily involved in the redisplay of the Courtauld Gallery, which reopened in November 2021 following a three-year refurbishment. During that time, Karen ensured that the collection remained accessible, co-curatingÌýthe exhibitionsÌýThe Courtauld Collection, A Vision for ImpressionismÌýat the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (2019) andÌýMasterpieces of Impressionism. The Courtauld CollectionÌý(three venues in Japan, 2019-20). These projects, as well as the Courtauld National scheme that shared the collection with partner museums across the UK, highlighted new research on the collector and philanthropist Samuel Courtauld, as well as on the works of art themselves.
Prior to the Gallery’s closure for renovation, Karen curatedÌýthe exhibitionsÌýSoutine’s Portraits: Waiters, Cooks and BellhopsÌý(2017-18);ÌýBruegel in Black and White.ÌýThree Grisailles ReunitedÌý(2016);ÌýBridget Riley. Learning from SeuratÌý(2015-16);ÌýUnfinished… Works from The Courtauld CollectionÌý(2015) andÌýCollecting Gauguin. Samuel Courtauld in the ‘20sÌý(2013).
Karen’s future exhibition projects includeÌýWayne Thiebaud. American Still LifeÌý(2025) andÌýSeurat and the SeaÌý(2026).
The Courtauld’s collection of paintings before 1900 is the object of an ongoing, long-term research project, with the aim of producing an online scholarly catalogue.
