John Oliver Hand was the curator of northern Renaissance paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington until 2019. He was educated at Denison University (BA in studio art), the University of Chicago (MA in art history), and Princeton University (MFA and PhD in art history).

From 1965 to 1969 Hand was a docent in the education department at the National Gallery of Art. In 1973 he returned to the National Gallery as curator of northern European paintings. Among the exhibitions Hand helped organize or coordinate for the National are: The Exhibition of Archaeological Finds of the People’s Republic of China (1974); Master Paintings from the Hermitage and the State Russian Museum (1975); The Age of Bruegel: Netherlandish Drawings of the Sixteenth Century (1986); “The Saint Anne Altarpiece” by Gerard David (1992); Hans Memling’s “Saint John the Baptist” and “Saint Veronica” (1994); and Jan van Eyck’s “Annunciation” (1994).

In addition to numerous articles and reviews in the field of northern Renaissance art, Hand has written the systematic catalogues for the National Gallery’s collections: Early Netherlandish Painting (1986, with Martha Wolff) and German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries (1993). Recent publications include Joos van Cleve: The Complete Paintings (2004) and National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection (2004).