 He was the co-author, with Francis Haskell, of "Taste and the Antique", a study of the formation of the canon of classical sculpture published in 1984.Between 1984 and 1989 Penny was keeper of the department of Western art at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and professorial fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.In 1990 he began a long association with the National Gallery, joining the institution as Clore Curator of Renaissance Painting.