Brett Dolman
Position: Curator of Collections
About
Brett is a curator and historian, specialising in the creation, purpose, and reception of western European art from the 16th to early 18th centuries. As Curator of Collections based at Hampton Court, he is responsible for the management, research, display, and interpretation of fine art, including paintings and tapestries. He works alongside colleagues at the Royal Collection Trust and has a research interest in the display of Royal Collection paintings at Hampton Court from the 16th century to the present.
At HRP since 2003, Brett has curated exhibitions and displays on Tudor and Stuart history, Shakespeare and court drama, court portraiture and the Royal Collection. At Hampton Court, he is the curator of the Cumberland Art Gallery and the Mantegna Gallery. He has published on portraiture, Tudor history painting, Baroque murals, the Royal Collection and the Raphael Cartoons. Brett is co-convenor of the British Murals Network, a gathering of academics, professionals and conservators interested in the history of interior decorative art of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Select publications
Dolman, B., Beauty, Sex and Power (London: Scala & Historic Royal Palaces, 2012).
Dolman, B., Drama and Debate at the Stuart Court (London: Historic Royal Palaces, 2004).
Dolman, B., ‘Palaces, Progresses, Panache and Pictures’, in Royal Journeys in Early Modern Europe, ed. by A. Musson and J. P. D. Cooper (Abingdon & New York: Routledge, 2023), pp. 170-93.
All articles by Brett Dolman (6)
The History of the Abraham Tapestries at Hampton Court
15 November 2024
Tudor tapestries were the epitome of cultural sophistication and a symbol of the lucky owner’s accomplishments and values: highly coloured, glittering expositions of magnificence and success. Here, Curator Brett Dolman explores how the 'Abraham' tapestries came to be at Hampton Court, and their meaning to those who gazed upon them in the 16th century.
The Commonwealth Games and Henry VIII's forgotten cricketing disaster
01 August 2022
Curator Brett Dolman looks briefly into the history of the Commonwealth Games and imagines Henry VIII’s forgotten cricketing disaster at Hampton Court.
Catherine Howard: History and the Use of Adjectives
11 February 2022
On the anniversary of the execution of Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife and Queen, Collections Curator Brett Dolman investigates how difficult it is to reconstruct and understand her life. Bringing the past alive is part of what historians are expected to do, but how far should we go to tell a good story?
The Tempest at Whitehall Palace
01 November 2021
1 November 1611 was the first recorded performance of William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Curator Brett Dolman reflects on the Jacobean court setting in which it was first performed and how its themes reflect the ambitions and fears of James I's reign.
Happy Birthday Henry VIII
28 June 2018
On 28 June 2018, Henry VIII will celebrate his 527th birthday. From wherever he is watching. Our most famous Tudor monarch would no doubt have expected a decent seat in Heaven: most early modern rulers tended to believe they had a divinely sanctioned right to rule as they pleased, and Henry was a king who appointed himself as Supreme Head of the English Church.
Hampton Court Palace as a Victorian art gallery
15 January 2016
This little watercolour, painted by an unknown artist in the 1850s, is a revealing glimpse of what it was like to visit Hampton Court Palace in the 19th century.