Belinda Rathbone

Belinda Rathbone
Born (1950-10-30) October 30, 1950
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Occupations
  • Biographer
  • art historian
Spouse
John Ouchterlony
​
​
(m. 1992, separated)​
Children1
Parents
Academic background
Alma mater
Academic work
Discipline
  • Art history
  • biography
Institutions

Belinda Rathbone (born October 30, 1950) is an American art, historian and biographer. After working briefly as a photographer, she later worked as a curator specializing in the art, with her work including One of a Kind: Recent Polaroid Color Photography (1979) and American Dreams (1987). Since then, she has written several biographies and non-fiction books, including Walker Evans: A Biography (1995), The Guynd: A Scottish Journal (2005), and The Boston Raphael (2014).

Biography

Belinda Rathbone was born on October 30, 1950 in St. Louis, Missouri, to museum director Perry T. Rathbone and British alpine skier and arts patron Euretta de Cosson Rathbone.[1] She was later raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2] She obtained an AA from Simon's Rock at Bard College in 1970, and after spending a year at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, obtained an MA from Goddard College in 1975.[1]

During her early years, Rathbone had a brief career as an artistic photographer. She competed in the Boston Center for the Arts' Photovision '72 contest in May 1972, becoming one of the winners.[3] Her rural architecture photographs appeared at the Photographs by (29) New England Women exhibition at Harvard-Loeb Drama Center in November 1972[4] She was part of the BCA's Photovision '75 exhibition; Robert Taylor of The Boston Globe remarked that her work's form had "wit".[5] She also held solo exhibitions at the Panopticon Gallery in Boston in July 1974 and the Ahimsa Gallery in Milbridge, Maine in July 1976.[6][7]

Rathbone worked as a curatorial assistant in the Boston Public Library Department of Prints from 1976 to 1977, an artists' liaison at Polaroid Corporation's publicity department from 1977 to 1979, and as a curatorial intern at the Museum of Modern Art Department of Photography from 1979 to 1980.[1] She was curator for the 1987 exhibition catalogue American Dreams, featuring photographs shown at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.[1][8] She worked as the curator of the photographs in the Edward R. Downe, Jr. Collection from 1988 until 1992.[1]

As a historian, Rathbone specializes in photography and the arts.[1] In 2005, she published The Guynd: A Scottish Journal, centered on her husband's Regency era estate in Angus, Scotland.[2] She wrote The Boston Raphael, a 2014 book about a career-ending scandal her father was involved in over a painting inaccurately attributed to Raphael,[9] as well as George Rickey: A Life in Balance, a 2021 biography on the titular sculptor.[10] She served as the editor for her father's journals, published as On In the Company of Art: A Museum Director's Private Journals in April 2024.[11] She also co-authored Two Lives: Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe (1992), Walker Evans: The Lost Work (2000), and Tea with Miss Rose: Recipes & Reminiscences of Boston's Teacup Society (2002)[1]

Rathbone married Scottish engineer John Ouchterlony, 26th Laird of The Guynd, on January 6, 1992.[1][2] The couple had one child before they separated.[1] Rathbone is a Democrat.[1] She is an Episcopalian.[1] As of 1995, she lived in Cambridge.[12]

Works

  • One of a Kind: Recent Polaroid Color Photography (1979)
  • American Dreams (1987)[8]
  • (with Elizabeth Turner and Roger Shattuck) Two Lives: Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe (1992)[1]
  • Walker Evans: A Biography (1995)[a]
  • (with Clark Worswick) Walker Evans: The Lost Work (2000)[18]
  • (co-authored) Tea with Miss Rose: Recipes & Reminiscences of Boston's Teacup Society (2002)[1]
  • The Guynd: A Scottish Journal (2005)[b]
  • The Boston Raphael: A Mysterious Painting, an Embattled Museum in an Era of Change & a Daughter's Search for the Truth (2014)[c]
  • George Rickey: A Life in Balance (2021)[21]
  • (ed.) In the Company of Art: A Museum Director's Private Journals (2024, by Perry T. Rathbone)[22]

Notes

  1. ^ Reviews of this book: [13][14][15][16][17]
  2. ^ Reviews of this book: [2][19][20]
  3. ^ Reviews of this book: [9][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Belinda Rathbone." Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors, Gale, 2015. Gale In Context: Biography, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000120878/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=10a23e24. Accessed 14 Mar. 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d Bathurst, Bella (January 15, 2006). "That Old House". New York Times Book Review. p. 7.13. ProQuest 217294730.
  3. ^ "A Toy is a Toy". The Boston Globe. May 27, 1972. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Goell, Jonathan (November 17, 1972). "John Vachon photojournalism on exhibition at Imageworks". The Boston Globe. p. 46 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Taylor, Robert (February 16, 1975). "Photo art's exciting state". The Boston Globe. p. A-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "What's happening: July 12 to July 19". The Boston Globe. July 11, 1974. p. 20 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Ahimsa Gallery Opens For Its Second Season". Ellsworth American. July 1, 1976. p. 17 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ a b "Review of American Dreams". The Print Collector's Newsletter. 18 (5): 182–182. 1987. ISSN 0032-8537. JSTOR 24553547.
  9. ^ a b Bosch, Lindsay (November 1, 2014). "The Boston Raphael: A Mysterious Painting, an Embattled Museum in an Era of Change, and a Daughter's Search for the Truth". The Booklist. Vol. 111, no. 5. p. 16. ProQuest 1619361971.
  10. ^ "George Rickey". Godine. Retrieved March 14, 2026.
  11. ^ "In the Company of Art". Godine. Retrieved March 14, 2026.
  12. ^ a b Haygood, Wil (May 26, 1995). "'Walker Evans' biography: poetry in pictures". The Boston Globe. p. 69.
  13. ^ Hagen, Charles (June 25, 1995). "'Half old master, half old maid'". New York Times Book Review. p. 7. ProQuest 217279456.
  14. ^ "WALKER EVANS: A Biography". Kirkus Reviews. No. 7. April 1, 1995. ProQuest 917202414.
  15. ^ McGowan, William (1995). "Photojournalist without pity -- Walker Evans: A Biography by Belinda Rathbone". Columbia Journalism Review. Vol. 34, no. 4. p. 55. ProQuest 230333150.
  16. ^ Tucker, Anne Wilkes (1996). "Review of Walker Evans: The Getty Museum Collection; Walker Evans: A Biography; Walker Evans: Incognito". On Paper. 1 (1): 41–43. ISSN 1089-7909. JSTOR 24554509.
  17. ^ "Review of Walker Evans: A Biography". The Wilson Quarterly. 19 (4): 87–88. 1995. ISSN 0363-3276. JSTOR 40259058.
  18. ^ Dykstra, Jean (2001). "Review of Walker Evans; Unclassified: A Walker Evans Anthology, Maria Morris Hambourg, Jeff L. Rosenheim, Douglas Eklund; Walker Evans & Company; Walker Evans: The Lost Work". Art on Paper. 5 (3): 96–98. ISSN 1521-7922. JSTOR 24558175.
  19. ^ Kaufmann, Linda M. (October 1, 2005). "The Guynd: A Scottish Journal". Library Journal. Vol. 130, no. 16. p. 99. ProQuest 196775059.
  20. ^ Hoover, Danise (2005). "The Guynd: A Scottish Journal". The Booklist. Vol. 102, no. 2. p. 22. ProQuest 235529005.
  21. ^ Gibson, Eric (2021). "A Rickey renaissance". The New Criterion. Vol. 40, no. 3. p. 45-49. ProQuest 2595665460.
  22. ^ Panero, James (2024). "The Boston Perry". The New Criterion. Vol. 43, no. 2. p. 1-6. ProQuest 3113826097.
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