Mahon, Sir Denis

Mahon, Sir Denis (b London, 8 Nov. 1910).
British art historian and collector. A private scholar with private means, he has devoted himself to the study of 17th-century Italian (particularly Bolognese) painting, and has not only built up a choice collection in this field, but also played a greater part than anyone else in the rehabilitation of such once-scorned artists as the Carracci, Guercino, and Reni. He is also a leading Poussin scholar. His publications include Studies in Seicento Art and Theory (1947), a brilliant pioneering work, and catalogues of Carracci drawings (1956) and Guercino paintings (1968) and drawings (1969) for major exhibitions of their work in Bologna.