Elizabeth Burin was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in western Switzerland.  She holds a B.A. in Classics from the University of Cambridge and advanced degrees in Art History from the Universities of Paris-Sorbonne and Cambridge.  After completing her doctorate, she worked for seven years at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore as a curator in the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books.  She is the author of various articles on  illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and of a book, Manuscript Illumination in Lyons, 1473-1530 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2001).  She has also taught as an Adjunct Professor at Towson University and at Goucher College.

It was during a lull in her scholarly career that Elizabeth Burin turned to studio art.  She became committed to painting while earning a Certificate of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art.  She is a Signature Artist member of the Baltimore, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia Watercolor Societies and belongs to several other regional artists’ organizations.  She and her husband have recently moved from Baltimore to Switzerland, where she looks forward to resuming her artistic career.