Obituary: Philip Conisbee

Philip Conisbee, who has died aged 62 of complications arising from lung cancer, was a British-born art historian with a passion for all things French. As senior curator of European paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, he assembled exhibitions such as The Age of Watteau, Chardin and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting (1999) and Cézanne in Provence (2006) that were unparalleled in their ambition to explore a theme through bringing together a choice group of works.

Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch (1999), the largest display of these works put together outside France, was achieved with colleagues from the National Gallery, London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, to which it also went. The success of these events relied on Philip's diplomacy and gentle persuasion, and in 2004 he was appointed a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.

Philip was born in Belfast but grew up in London, and went to St Dunstan's college, Catford. He gained a BA in the history of European art (1968) at the Courtauld Institute, London, followed by a doctorate in 1971 on the landscape and marine painter Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789). It provided the springboard for his first exhibition, held at Kenwood House, Hampstead, north London, and at the Musée de la Marine, Paris, in 1976. Critical perception of the artist was altered, and Philip learned how to combine original scholarship with public display.

Part-time academic positions led to lectureships at Leicester University (1971-86), but a few months as a visiting fellow at the Yale Center for British Art in 1985 gave him a taste for the US at a time when Thatcherite policies were reducing options at home. The following year he became associate curator of French paintings at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.

In 1988, Earl "Rusty" Powell III, then director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, lured Philip there. California suited him, and he became adept at winding his 6ft 5in frame into a cappuccino-coloured convertible.

I first met Philip in Los Angeles during the exhibition of works by the high-baroque Italian master Guido Reni (1988), which he installed. It was a pleasure to observe his vision, enthusiasm for acquisitions, and patient development of the curatorial staff.

The call to Washington came in 1993. Powell had become director of the National Gallery of Art the year before, and he immediately asked Philip to join the staff. He was promoted to senior curator in 1998, and that year's Van Gogh exhibition attracted nearly half a million visitors. Philip also had a special love for the glowing landscapes of Claude Lorrain, the tragic vistas of Poussin, and for northern visions of southern light by artists from Caspar David Friedrich to David Hockney.

He enjoyed writing reviews and essays, and was co-author of a book on Leon Kossoff's drawings at the National Gallery in London (2007). He remained, however, dedicated to completing the catalogue of Washington's permanent collection of French paintings from the 16th to 18th centuries, making suggestions for improvement up to his death.

Philip married Faya Causey in California in 1993, and became a US citizen the following year. Their Georgetown home was open to colleagues from around the world. She survives him, as do his son Ben and daughter Molly from his first marriage.

· Philip Conisbee, curator and art historian, born January 3 1946; died January 16 2008