Born in
Naarden, Haverkamp-Begemann spent most of his childhood in
Kemerovo and
Moscow in
Russia, where his father worked as an
engineer. After a year in
Morocco, the family returned to the
Netherlands in the late 1930s. Haverkamp-Begemann finished
high school in
Dordrecht, and initially studied
law, but soon turned to
art history. He completed a
Doctor of Philosophy in
Art History with
honors at
Utrecht University in 1958. Haverkamp-Begemann's dissertation was on the
Dutch Golden Age painter Willem Pieterszoon Buytewech, which was supervised by
Jan Gerrit van Gelder. In 1950, Haverkamp-Begemann was hired as Curator of Drawings, and later Curator of Paintings, at the
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in
Rotterdam. In 1959, he moved to the
United States to conduct research at the
Institute for Advanced Study, as well as at
Harvard University. In the following year, Haverkamp-Begemann was named Curator of Drawings and Prints of the
Yale University Art Gallery, a position which he held until 1974. In his final four years there, he chaired that department. Haverkamp-Begemann also taught
art history at the school. In 1965, Haverkamp-Begemann received a
Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts Research. In 1978, Haverkamp-Begemann began a long tenure at the
New York University Institute of Fine Arts. He was named
John Langeloth Loeb Professor in the History of Art, which later turned into an emeritus position upon retirement in 1988. He also would become Curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. From 2001 to 2004, Haverkamp-Begemann served as Acting Head of the Department of Prints and Drawings at
The Morgan Library & Museum. In 1983, Anne-Marie S. Logan and other colleagues published a
festschrift in honor of Haverkamp-Begemann titled
Essays in Northern European Art: Presented to Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann on his Sixtieth Birthday. Haverkamp-Begemann was named an Officer of the
Order of Orange Nassau. He died in
New York City in 2017. ==Works==