Richard Dorment was born in America and studied at Princeton and Columbia before joining the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A distinguished art historian, scholar, journalist, and exhibition curator, he was chief art critic on London's Daily Telegraph from 1986 until his recent retirement. He has been named Critic of the Year in the British Press Awards. A frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, his work has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement and the Literary Review. In 2014 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for Services to the Arts by Queen Elizabeth II.