About the British Museum

Meet the curators

Name: Martin Royalton-Kisch

Job title: Senior Curator

Department: Prints and Drawings

Background: Martin Royalton-Kisch has spent most of his career at the British Museum, but worked at the Manchester Art Gallery from 1978-1982. He specialises in Dutch and Flemish art and has published very widely, especially about Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Bruegel and their contemporaries.

Quote: The collections of Western art since the Renaissance at the British Museum are so extraordinary that nowhere else can really match them for depth and breadth. They give you the sense of having your finger on the pulse of the culture and period they cover, from around AD1400 till today. There are endless discoveries to be made and inspirations to be had, and there is a great team atmosphere.

What is your favourite artefact in the Museum's collection?
It might be Rembrandt's drawn 'Self-portrait with mouth open' (most of his self-portraits are paintings or prints). The self-portrait is a perfect representation of a student-aged youth, with his somewhat post-adolescent sense of knowing it all yet with the prospect of a long future. But he probably made it only to study the way the light of a candle played across his face.

View Rembrandt's 'Self-portrait with mouth open' on the British Museum website.