Simon Rollo Gillespie (born 26 May 1955) is a British

conservator-restorer A conservator-restorer is a professional responsible for the preservation of artistic and cultural artifacts, also known as cultural heritage. Conservators possess the expertise to preserve cultural heritage in a way that retains the integrity ...

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

, and an art historian. He is known particularly for his work with Early British and Tudor portraits, although his practice extends across all periods from early paintings to contemporary artworks. Gillespie has been restoring art since 1978, and he appears frequently on the

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

series '' Britain's Lost Masterpieces'', having previously appeared on the

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins ...

art programme ''

Fake or Fortune ''Fake or Fortune?'' is a BBC One documentary television series which examines the provenance and attribution of notable artworks. Since the first series aired in 2011, ''Fake or Fortune?'' has drawn audiences of up to 5 million viewers in t ...

''.

Life and career

Gillespie was educated at

Milton Abbey School Milton Abbey school is an independent school for day and boarding pupils in the village of Milton Abbas, near Blandford Forum in Dorset, in South West England. It has 224 pupils , in five houses: Athelstan, Damer, Hambro, Hodgkinson and Tregonw ...

. After an apprenticeship for cabinet maker Martin Dodgsen and a spell as a viticulturalist in Germany, in 1975 he began his business of restoring and exporting vintage cars, moving onto 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 restoration and conservation of fine art paintings. During this time, he completed a chemistry course related to conservation. In 1982, Gillespie founded his own restoration studio, Simon Gillespie Ltd. His clients have included international art galleries, major auction houses, private and corporate collections, yacht owners and family offices, as well as museums that do not have their own conservation studios. Since 2016, Gillespie has worked alongside Bendor Grosvenor on the BBC4 programme '' Britain's Lost Masterpieces''. The conservation treatment carried out on paintings as part of this TV programme has resulted in the re-discovery of previously lost or unknown masterpieces, including: * a mythological scene on panel by

Jacob Jordaens Jacob (Jacques) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter, Drawing, draughtsman and tapestry designer known for his history paintings, genre scenes and portraits. After Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyc ...

; * a portrait by

Allan Ramsay Allan Ramsay may refer to: *Allan Ramsay (poet) or Allan Ramsay the Elder (1686–1758), Scottish poet *Allan Ramsay (artist) or Allan Ramsay the Younger (1713–1784), Scottish portrait painter *Allan Ramsay (diplomat) (1937–2022), British diplom ...

; * a portrait of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, found at Pollok House in Glasgow, Scotland. The painting was thought to be a copy of a portrait by

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium ...

artist

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradit ...

that had been lost for nearly 400 years, but after restoration, it was found to be the original by Rubens. Its discovery made the news worldwide. * a portrait of a young cardinal by

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, n ...

in the collection at

Petworth House Petworth House in the parish of Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century Grade I listed country house, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s to the design of the architect Anthony Sa ...

; * a pastoral scene by studio of

Jan Brueghel the Elder Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; 1568 – 13 January 1625) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. He was the son of the eminent Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. A close friend and frequent collabora ...

and Joos de Momper at

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BM&AG) is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England. It has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, natural history, archaeology, ethnography, ...

; * a portrait of

George Oakley Aldrich The Aldrichian Chairs were professorial positions at the University of Oxford during the nineteenth century, endowed by George Oakley Aldrich. His will left the residue of his estate to Oxford, to found in equal parts three chairs. By the 1850s the ...

by Rome-based fresco and portrait painter

Pompeo Batoni Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (25 January 1708 – 4 February 1787) was an Italian painter who displayed a solid technical knowledge in his portrait work and in his numerous allegorical and mythological pictures. The high number of foreign visitors tra ...

; and most recently, * a Madonna and Child painted in oil on panel from the

National Museum Cardiff National Museum Cardiff ( cy, Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd) is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Entry is kept free by a grant from the Welsh G ...

, long thought to have been an unimportant copy of a Botticelli by an unknown artist, which after treatment was declared by Laurence Kanter, chief curator of the

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

and a Botticelli specialist, to be “clearly” from

Sandro Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered ...

’s studio, with "more than a bit of it" by the master himself. The most significant discovery arising from Gillespie's work on the show '' Fake or Fortune?'' (with Philip Mould and Fiona Bruce) was in 2015, when a

Pietà The Pietà (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus after his body was removed from the cross. It is most often found in sculpture Sculpture is the branc ...

from St John the Baptist's Church, Tunstall in Lancashire was revealed to be by the Italian painter Francesco Montemezzano. Philip Mould said of the result of Gillespie's conservation treatment: “It was an extraordinary transformation and on a scale that is pretty well unmatched." Gillespie has been involved in revealing lost masterpieces by

Van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh ...

, including ''

Magistrate of Brussels ''Magistrate of Brussels'' is an unfinished oil painting or oil sketch by Anthony van Dyck, rediscovered in 2013 after being shown on episodes of the BBC television programme '' Antiques Roadshow''. The work was purchased for £400 from a Na ...

'' (discovered in 2013), and a portrait of Olivia Porter, lady in-waiting of Queen

Henrietta Maria Henrietta Maria (french: link=no, Henriette Marie; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. She wa ...

and wife of van Dyck’s friend and patron, Endymion Porter. Gillespie has also worked on some recent discoveries of paintings that belonged to

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagr ...

. In addition, in 2019 his contribution to online debates on the public forum of the

Art UK Art UK is a cultural, education charity in the United Kingdom, previously known as the Public Catalogue Foundation. Since 2003, it has digitised more than 220,000 paintings by more than 40,000 artists and is now expanding the digital collection t ...

website resulted in a painting at the

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

being confirmed as a portrait by Van Dyck himself. In February 2020, Gillespie announced the rediscovery of a lost masterpiece by 17th-century Italian female artist

Artemisia Gentileschi Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi (, ; 8 July 1593) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing profess ...

. The picture, depicting David with the Head of Goliath and belonging to a private collector who brought it to Gillespie's studio for treatment after purchasing it at auction in December 2018, was published in an article written by Gianni Papi in ''

The Burlington Magazine ''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the fine and decorative arts of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a charitable organisation sin ...

''.

Personal life

Gillespie married Cristina Rule, and they had three sons. In 2014, Gillespie married Philippa Found.

Filmography

*'' Britain's Lost Masterpieces'' (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) *'' Fake or Fortune? A Mystery Old Master'' (2015) *'' Fake or Fortune? Munnings and Churchill'' (2015) *'' Fake or Fortune? Constable'' (2015) *''

Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local peopl ...

Van Dyck, Christmas Special Show'' *''BBC Culture Show, Your Paintings, Culture Show Special'' (2011/2012)

Publications

* Strong, Roy, Sir, ed. (1999). 600 Years of British Painting: The Berger Collection at the Denver Art Museum Paperback (1999). Metaphor Publishing. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillespie, Simon Rollo 1955 births Living people British art collectors British art historians