Robinson was a leading authority on British art from the eighteenth century onwards. He began his career as an assistant keeper in the Department of Paintings and Drawings at
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, between 1970 and 1976. In 1976, he was appointed Keeper of Paintings and Drawings. From 1975 to 1981, he was additionally a
Fellow of
Clare College, Cambridge and a college
lecturer. Robinson joined the
Fitzwilliam Museum as its director in 1995 upon returning to the United Kingdom from Yale. He resumed teaching at Cambridge and was elected into a professorial fellowship at Clare College. He retired as director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in 2007 in order to devote more time to Magdalene College, his research and his teaching. In 2002, Robinson was appointed
Master of Magdalene College following the retirement of
Sir John Gurdon. In 2005 he was appointed a deputy
vice-chancellor of the
University of Cambridge. Unusually for a head of house, he remained the director of studies for both of 'his' colleges: Magdalene and Clare. He served as master until the end of 2012; on 1 January 2013,
Rowan Williams took up the role. He was made an honorary fellow of Magdalene upon the end of his term as master. Robinson was a trustee of the
Royal Collection. He also served as the chairman of the
Henry Moore Foundation in the 2010s. ==Personal life and death==