Simon Gillespie
| Simon Gillespie | |
|---|---|
| File:Simon Gillespie Studio Picture.jpgSimon_Gillespie_Studio_Picture.jpg | |
| Born | Simon Rollo Gillespie 26 May 1955 United Kingdom |
| 🏳️ Nationality | British |
| 🏫 Education | Milton Abbey, Dorset |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| 📆 Years active | 1978–present |
| Notable credit(s) | |
| 👩 Spouse(s) | Cristina Rule (m. 1976–2001, 3 children) Phillipa Found (m. 2014–present) |
| 👶 Children |
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Simon Gillespie (born 26 May 1955) is a British art restorer and art historian known for his expertise in working with Early British and Tudor portraits. He began restoring in 1978 and appears frequently in the BBC1 art programme, Fake or Fortune, the BBC4 series ‘Britain’s Lost Masterpieces’ and is often quoted in newspapers and art magazines. His studio also works with contemporary art.
Life and Work
Gillespie was educated at Milton Abbey and, after an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker and a spell as a viticulturalist in Germany, in 1975 he began a business restoring and exporting vintage cars, moving on to restoring antiques and early English furniture. After a three-year break travelling to Mexico and founding an English language school, Gillespie returned to the UK and began an apprenticeship in the restoration and conservation of fine art paintings. During this time, he completed a chemistry course related to conservation.
In 1982 Gillespie founded the restoration studio, Simon Gillespie Ltd. The studio employs around six conservators/ restorers, coming from highly respected courses in conservation such as the Courtauld Institute in London. The Studio is well known in the art trade and carries out work for London auction houses, established West End galleries and international private collections. The Studio now also specialises in the restoration of contemporary art works and welcomes the challenges of some of the diverse materials used today.
Studio clients include Holburne Museum, Bowes Museum, County Durham, Royal Navy Museum, Denver Art Museum, English Heritage, National Trust, British Council, Government Art Collection, US, German and Mexican Embassies, Sotheby’s, Christies, Phillip Mould & Co, Marlborough Gallery, Halcyon Gallery, Helly Nahmad Gallery and a wealth of others both in the UK and abroad.
Recently Simon has worked alongside Dr. Bendor Grosvenor, Phillip Mould and Fiona Bruce. He has been involved in revealing lost masterpieces by Van Dyck (link) and has worked on some recent discoveries of paintings that belonged to Henry VIII.
Outside of work, Simon enjoys climbing mountains, the higher the better.
Media
The Culture Show, BBC2 (March 2013) Portrait of Olivia Boteler Porter by Van Dyck, Bowes Museum (Portrait of Olivia Boteler Porter)
Spotted on the "Your Painting's" website (now Art UK) by art historian Bendor Grosvenor as having been misattributed to "studio of" Van Dyck, Simon Gillespie Studio were involved in testing to remove the overpaint and reveal the original colours in the painting as the artist had intended. The painting was strip-lined to add strength to the structure and then minor retouching was applied to re-integrate the old damages. Following this restoration, the painting was successfully re-presented to Christopher Brown, then Director of the Ashmolean Museum and a renowned expert on the work of Van Dyck, and returned to the Bowes Museum as being a fully accepted painting by the artist.
BBC Fake or Fortune, A Mystery Old Master (Series 4, Episode 3) (Francesco Montemezzano)
A painting in an English church, St John the Baptist's Church, Tunstall, Lancashire, was identified by Phillip Mould as possibly being by a Venetian Old Master painter. Simon Gillespie Studio were involved in testing and the removal of various layers of interventions which had masked the hand of the original artist Francesco Montemezzano (ca. 1540-after 1602). After extensive cleaning and retouching treatment, the painting was presented cleaned and showing the original colours to the experts in Venetian 16th Century painting, with the resulting confirmed attribution. Comparisons were made to the ceiling painting in San Nicolo dei Mendicoli in Venice.
BBC Britain’s Lost Masterpieces (Britain’s Lost Masterpieces)
Simon reveals the authentic nature of lost or misattributed masterpieces discovered by art historian Dr Bendor Grosvenor. Simon's expertise demonstrates the extent to which overpaint obscures original works of art from public collections listed on the former BBC "Your Painting's" (now Art UK). Simon and Bendor reconsider paintings from collections in Swansea, Aberdeenshire and Belfast.
Publications
Ancestry
Simon is from a family distinguished by military service: General Sir Robert Rollo Gillespie (21 January 1766 - 31 October 1814[1]) described as one of the "Bravest Soldiers"[2]
References
- ↑ Dictionary of Indian Biography; Charles E Buckland p166 (1906)
- ↑ "Rollo_Gillespie".
External links
- Simon Gillespie Studio
- BBC1 Fake or Fortune
- BBC4 ‘Britain’s Lost Masterpieces
- The Benefits and Dangers of Art Restoration
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