Elizabeth Cropper was the Dean of the National Gallery of Art’s Center for Advance Study in the Visual Arts (The Center) from 2000 to 2020.

Cropper received her Bachelor of Arts with honors from Cambridge University, England, and her PhD from Bryn Mawr College. Before joining The Johns Hopkins University as professor in 1985, Cropper was a professor at Temple University's Tyler School of Art. In addition to professorships at Cambridge University and the Center, her visiting appointments include tenures as directeur d'Études Associé at the École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales, Paris (1990-1991 and 1997); as Samuel H. Kress Fellow, The Center, National Gallery of Art; (1984-1985) and as professor at the Collège de France in 1996.

Among Cropper's postdoctoral research awards are positions as visiting scholar and fellow at the Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies, Villa I Tatti, Florence; Andrew W. Mellon Professor at The Center; and visiting member, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Her recent publications include Pontormo: Portrait of a Halberdier (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1997), Nicolas Poussin: Friendship and the Love of Painting, with Charles Dempsey (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1996) and Florentine Drawing at the Time of Lorenzo the Magnificent (Villa Spelman Colloquium Series, 4, Nuova Alfa Editoriale, Bologna, 1994).