Rachel Sloan was educated in the United States and England, earning a BA in English literature and history of art from Washington University in St Louis and an MA and PhD from The Courtauld Institute of Art, on Symbolism and artistic exchange between France and Britain in the late nineteenth century.

She subsequently served as graduate intern in the Drawings Department of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2009-2010) and as curatorial research fellow at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (2010-2011). Rachel joined The Courtauld as Assistant Curator of Works on Paper in 2012. Recent exhibitions she has curated include Impressions of Modern Life: Prints from The Courtauld Gallery (2020, Royal Holloway, University of London) and Helen Saunders: Modernist Rebel (2022-23, The Courtauld, London)

• Symbolism in France, Britain and Belgium
• Nineteenth century French and British prints and drawings
• The Nabis
• Women artists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
• Romanticism in England and Germany

• Vanessa Bell: A Pioneer of Modern Art (The Courtauld, London, 2024)
  
• Helen Saunders: Modernist Rebel (The Courtauld, London, 2022-23)
• Impressions of Modern Life: Prints from The Courtauld Gallery (2020, Royal Holloway, University of London)

• Regarding Trees, The Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawing Gallery, The Courtauld Gallery, June-September 2016 (collection display).
• Panorama, (sole curator), The Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawing Gallery, The Courtauld Gallery, September 2015-January 2016 (collection display).
• Bruegel to Freud: Prints from the Courtauld Collection, (sole curator), The Courtauld Gallery, June-September 2014 (exhibition).
• A Dialogue with Nature: Romantic Landscapes in Britain and Germany, (co-curator with Matthew Hargraves), The Courtauld Gallery, January-April 2014 and The Morgan Library, New York, May-September 2014 (exhibition).
• French Portrait Drawings, 1600-1850, The Courtauld Gallery, June-September 2013 (collection display).
• Picasso, Matisse, Maillol: The Female Model, The Courtauld Gallery, January-May 2013 (collection display).
• Peter Lely: The Draughtsman and his Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, September 2012-January 2013 (collection display).
• James Tissot: The Thames, (sole curator), Santa Barbara Museum of Art, February-May 2012 (collection display).
• Images of the Artist, (co-curator with Edouard Kopp), J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, November 2011-February 2012 (exhibition).
• The Etching Revival, (sole curator), Santa Barbara Museum of Art, November 2011-February 2012 (collection display).
• Echoes of Japan: The Prints of Henri Rivière (1864-1951), (sole curator), Santa Barbara Museum of Art, October 2011-January 2012 (exhibition).
• Drawn to Modernism: Selected Gifts from Wright S. Ludington, (sole curator), Santa Barbara Museum of Art, April-July 2011 (exhibition).
• Recent Acquisitions in Context: Orientalism in France, (sole curator), J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, August-November 2010 (collection display)