 His most recent contribution to Gainsborough scholarship is his catalogue raisonné of Gainsborough's portraits published in February 2019 by the Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.Hugh Belsey was born in May 1954 in the district of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Manchester which he followed with a post-graduate diploma in art gallery and museum studies.