Xanthe Brooke completed her MPhil at the Courtauld Institute with a dissertation on the patronage and art collection of the 1st Duke of Lerma (1598–1625). Formerly curator of Continental European Fine Art at the National Museums Liverpool, where she curated many exhibitions at the Walker Art Gallery, including Murillo in Focus (1990), and co-curated at Dulwich Picture Gallery, with Peter Cherry, Murillo. Scenes of Childhood (2001). Her field of research interests include the reception of Spanish art in Britain, especially the work of Murillo, Velázquez and Ribera, about which she has written extensively in the form of essays and exhibition catalogue reviews in diverse British and Spanish periodicals and publications.