Rebecca Birrell is an art historian, writer and curator. She lives in Cambridge.

Her first book, This Dark Country: Women Artists, Still Life and Intimacy in the Early 20th Century was published by Bloomsbury in 2021. It was awarded an Antonia Frazer Award for a Biography in Progress by the Society of Authors in 2019. A Guardian/Observer Art Book of the Year 2021, it was described as ‘a striking act of collective empathy.’ It was also longlisted for the William M B Berger Prize for British Art History 2022 and shortlisted for the PEN Hessell Tiltman Prize, 2022.

She was Curator of 19th and 20th Century Paintings and Drawings at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, between 2021-2023. She curated the rehang of Galleries 1-5 that opened in March 2024.

Prior to her PhD, she occupied curatorial positions at The Charleston Trust, The Department of Prints and Drawings at The British Museum, and The Jewish Museum, working on research, exhibitions and displays. During her PhD, she undertook a fellowship at The Yale Center for British Art. She also worked on the photographic archive at the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust.

She continues to work on curatorial projects and writes regularly for exhibition catalogues. This includes the lead essay for Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour at MK One Gallery and The Charleston Trust and an essay for Seeing Each Other at Pallant House Gallery.

She also writes about contemporary artists, such as Sofia Mitsola, Yulia Iosilzon and (for the 2024 Kettle’s Yard exhibition catalogue) Megan Rooney. 

She is currently a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at University of St Andrews. She is also a Bye-Fellow at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge.

Her second book, a novel, will be published by Picador in 2026.

She will be giving a public lecture on women artists painting the nude at The Clark in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on August 2nd 2025. 

For enquires and commissions, please contact her agent Harriet Moore at: harriet@aitkenalexander.co.uk.