Simon Rollo Gillespie


Simon Rollo Gillespie is a British conservator-restorer of fine art, 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 series Britain's Lost Masterpieces, having previously appeared on the BBC1 art programme Fake or Fortune.

Early life

Gillespie was educated at Milton Abbey School. 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.

Career

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:
The most significant discovery arising from Gillespie's work on the show Fake or Fortune? was in 2015, when a Pietà 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."

Involvement in discoveries

Gillespie has been involved in revealing lost masterpieces by van Dyck, including Magistrate of Brussels, and a portrait of Olivia Porter, lady in-waiting of Queen Henrietta Maria 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. In addition, in 2019 his contribution to online debates on the public forum of the Art UK website resulted in a painting at the Walker Art Gallery 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. 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.

Personal life

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

Filmography