Sir Charles Saumarez Smith

Sir Charles Saumarez Smith did a PhD on Castle Howard at the Warburg Institute, published in 1990 as The Building of Castle Howard. Since then, he has been Director of the National Portrait Gallery (1994–2002), the National Gallery (2002–2007) and Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy (2007–2018). Since leaving the Royal Academy, he has gone back to architectural history as the Royal Academy’s Professor of Architectural History (2019–2023), writing a monthly column on architecture for The Critic, publishing John Vanbrugh: The Drama of Architecture (Lund Humphries, 2025) and acting as co-curator for an exhibition on Vanbrugh, to be held at Sir John Soane’s Museum from March to June 2026. He is a Trustee of the Garden Museum and the Castle Howard Foundation, a member of the curatorial committee of the Design Museum and an Honorary Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge.