About William B. Jordan
William Bryan Jordan Jr. (May 8, 1940 – January 22, 2018) was an American art historian who facilitated acquisitions, curated exhibitions, and authored publications on Spanish artists and still life paintings, particularly from the Golden Age. Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, and later in San Antonio, Texas, Jordan studied at Washington and Lee University and the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. He became the founding director of the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University in 1967. With Algur H. Meadows' financial support, Jordan helped the museum acquire around 75 artworks and is credited for turning its collection into one of the most prominent collections of Spanish art outside Spain. He was also the chair of fine arts at the Meadows School of the Arts and an adjunct curator of the Dallas Museum of Art. After leaving the Meadows Museum, Jordan served as the deputy director and chief curator of the Kimbell Art Museum from 1981 to 1990, and worked on several still life exhibitions and publications, including Spanish Still Life in the Golden Age, 1600–1650 (1985) and Spanish Still Life from Velázquez to Goya (1995). Jordan's research of over 40 years on Juan van der Hamen culminated in his 2005 book Juan van der Hamen y León & the Court of Madrid. He was on the board of various museums and art institutes, and was made an honorary trustee of the Prado Museum in 2017. Known for his connoisseurship, Jordan worked as an acquisition and attribution expert, and maintained a private collection with his husband Robert Dean Brownlee. Jordan purchased a then-misattributed painting — that he believed was by Diego Velázquez — for £1,000 in 1988. After Velázquez's attribution was confirmed, he donated the painting, then titled Portrait of Philip III (1623–31) and valued at around US$6 million, to the Prado Museum in 2016. Following his death, several artworks from Jordan and Brownlee's collection were bequeathed to various museums by their estate. He spent eleven months evaluating archives in Spain, and discovered new painting records and biographical details of van der Hamen. Jordan became the founding director of the Meadows Museum and chair of fine arts at the Meadows School of the Arts in 1967.
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