Duncan Robinson (art historian)

For American basketball player, see Duncan Robinson (basketball).

Duncan Robinson at the Magdalene College scholars' admission 2010

David Duncan Robinson CBE DL FRSA (born 27 June 1943), was the Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge until the end of 2012; on 1 January 2013 the new master, Rowan Williams took up his role. He is also the Chairman of the Henry Moore Foundation and was, until 2007, the Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum. He has been made a fellow of Magdalene College, upon the end of his term as master.

Robinson was educated at The King's School, Macclesfield and Clare College, Cambridge.

Robinson is a leading authority on British art from the eighteenth century onwards. He joined the Fitzwilliam Museum as its director in 1995 upon returning to the United Kingdom from Yale, where he was an honorary member of Manuscript Society, taking a Professorial Fellowship at Clare College at the same time. He is also a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of the County of Cambridgeshire and a trustee of the Royal Collection.

In 2002, Robinson was appointed Master of Magdalene College following the retirement of Sir John Gurdon. In 2005 he was appointed as a Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Unusually for a Head of House, he remains the Director of Studies for both of 'his' Colleges: Magdalene College and Clare College.

Robinson retired as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in 2007 in order to devote more time to Magdalene College, his research and his teaching.

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.) in the 2008 Birthday Honours for services to the heritage of art.

Bibliography

• Stanley Spencer (Phaidon Press, 1993)
• The Yale Center for British Art: A Tribute to the Genius of Louis Kahn (with David Finn) (Yale University Press, 1997)
• Paul Mellon, A Cambridge Tribute (Fitzwilliam Museum Enterprises, 2007)