Philip Mould
@philipmould
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Art dealer, writer & broadcaster. President Plantlife & @kidsinmuseums. Whippet fancier. Co-presenter BBC1’s #Fakeorfortune.
Joined July 2010
A last smear from the chin removed. I will post an image of the completed picture as soon as it is ready.
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In response to those wanting sight of the uncleaned image of the #womaninred. All we know is she is 36 and it was painted 1618 (inscription)
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Blimey - a British treasure in Czechoslovakia. In an overcast upstairs room I have just encountered what must be best view of 18th century LONDON ever painted. It’s as good as going back in time. Canaletto, 1747, in of all places PRAGUE. Part of the ancient Lobkowicz collection.
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Small area of her astonishingly elaborate dress revealed. We dont know identity yet but certain iconographic clues are staring to emerge.
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I’m going to stick my neck out here. This self-portrait by Albert Durer (1500) is possibly the best portrait ever painted. I stood before him for 15 minutes today in Munich.
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The effect of mould. Left: the lost Charles Dickens as we first encountered it from a sale of knick-knacks in South Africa. Right: subsequently restored at the V&A
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What the mysterious 400 year old Prince Henry looked like before (with cleaning tests) and after cleaning. Mastic varnish - which is made from tree resin - biodegrades and turns yellow brown over time, and can almost completely hide a painting if left long enough.
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Hanging at our gallery for a month from Thursday - open to all. Check website for viewing times. Best formal life portrait of a sovereign for a very long while in my view.
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Wonderful that Lowry’s football masterpiece has been saved for Salford’s Lowry Centre by Andrew and Zoe Law. It sold ten mins ago for close to £7 million. It’s coming home….
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A Jacobean beau begins to buck his mask of grime. Discoloured resin not only optically reduces tones but modelling also; its professional removal will sometimes heighten the chance of identification and attribution.
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In many ways this 2007 official photo by Annie Leibovitz in Buckingham Palace Gardens is the most successful portrait of Queen Elizabeth in later life . Shades of Caravaggio, it combines solitary sovereignty with the brooding challenges of realm.
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An interesting effect of yellowing resin varnish is that optically it can “mix” blue into green. This 17th century child cleaned by our restorers two years ago turned out to be standing not within a cloud of green smog, but set before a startling summer sky.
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It gives us great pleasure to report #Fakeorfortune? series 9 is now in pre-production. Transmitting next year. @bbcarts @BBCOne
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Elizabeth 1 cleaned and revealing its outstandingly well preserved late Tudor colouring. I
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An mid-Elizabethan nobleman begins to break free of his obscuring grime this morning.
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Our team are hard at work researching this compelling - and recently resurfaced - portrait of the ageing Elizabeth (1590’s) and its fecund avian iconography.
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We’re off! #Fakeorfortune returns for our (anniversary) tenth series a week tomorrow on BBC 1 at 8.00pm. Four mysteries spanning 450 years. Details of the first programme to follow - a possible Ben Nicholson.
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We’re off! #fakeorfortune is about to enter (believe it or not) its 11th series. Will flag the date and the programme subjects shortly.
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We had the good fortune to briefly own this spirited drawing of our late beloved Queen by Laura Knight, 1950. When asked, she recalled sitting to her, but the memory was hazy. But there again, HRH dutifully sat for more portraits than probably anybody in recent history.
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Recently discovered: when a threatening would-be queen is executed, her royal image is often buried alive with her. Left: Adrian Vanson’s portrait of John, Lord Maitland of Thirlestane (1589); right: X-ray view of the same painting, showing the late Mary Queen of Scots beneath.
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A fairytale trinity: Neil Gaiman, Michael Sheen and David Tennant by portrait painter @Lorna_May_ Wadsworth to mark the premiere of #GoodOmens at pop up show at 19 Greek Street.
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We’re back! for the twelfth series this Thursday on BBC1. Piet Mondrian in the dock….#FakeorFortune
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Filming this afternoon for series 11 of Fake or Fortune? Four more artistic mysteries waiting to be solved. Due out this summer. Today’s forensic testing had a touch of Happy Valley about it (but in a gilt frame and without any bodies).
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Fascinating first signs of Cedric, our Gallery dog, developing a whippet’s nose. His old master awaits with anticipation. me.
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Fake or Fortune? will return within the month: series 9 (if you can believe it). Covid did not stop play. Details to follow soon…
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Attributed to John Greenhill (c.1644-76) of an unknown girl halfway through restoration. and now fully cleaned.
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1/2 Thrilling first glimpse today post-cleaning of what could be the earliest FULL LENGTH (almost) portrait of Elizabeth I as queen c.1559. Later in her reign she would try and have these destroyed in favour of more sophisticated, sanctioned images.
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Just completed first day’s filming of series 11 of #FakeorFortune. Mysteries keep coming. Hopefully solutions too. Due out later in the year.
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Many thanks for all your warm comments about this year’s run of #Fakeorfortune. They are greatly appreciated by the whole team. I’m delighted to say work has now begun on series 12 for next year.
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Proof that Van Gogh painted in the open. A grasshopper recently discovered embedded in his painting of Olive trees. See picture here
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How the $450 million Leonardo looked looked last century when you could have bought it for £45! Crude repaint by a later hand (left) to cover damage ended up hiding Leonardo’s hair and face. A restorer took months with solvent, scalpel and then paint brush to revive it(right).
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Excited to have just acquired this in States. It is an extraordinarily rare expression of interracial attachment in formal portraiture for the period (American School c.1820). Younger sister(?) holds a copy of Cinderella (symbolic?). Identities & artist are presently a mystery.
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Early morning start @WallaceMuseum in search of 18th century evidence. Series 11 of #Fakeorfortune due out next year.
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One way of getting an idea of how discoloured a varnish is, is to hold up a piece of white paper to an area like a lace collar which the artist intended to be taken for bright white. The contrast can be highly indicative. It was on the below.
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3/4 The excellently preserved surface and unfaded colours are now fully functioning.
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Early stages in the cleaning of an exquisite Jacobethan panel (c1620) that emerged in France.
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Hot off the easel. a still-wet still-life of teapots completed in Isolation by celebrated portraitist Lorna May Wadsworth today (60x50cms). In the absence of faces Lorna now stoops to conquer reflections.
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Liz I c.1563 that we handled, cleaned and researched. Almost certainly commissioned by herself, and showing her as fruitfully fertile bride-to-be, this richly elaborate full length image would have undermined desexed later portraits of her as Gloriana & may have been suppressed.
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First day of filming for 13th series of #Fakeorfortune Royal Acadia Academy- a founder of the institution being in our sights….
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The face on left just sold for £2.3 million (Christie’s). Face on right failed to raise one bid at £4,000. Both are equally well painted. Both are authentic works by Sir Thomas Lawrence. That’s the art market for you.
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It’s authenticity disguised by poor restoration and added paint, you could have bought this painting in 1958 for £45.
Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece Salvator Mundi achieves $450,312,500, a #worldauctionrecord for any work of art sold at auction.
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Was thrilled to encounter one of the most beautiful early Van Dycks I’ve seen for a while in Palazzo Rosso, Genoa today. Despite darks in hair (see lower right detail) and background being badly abraded, the brown ground saves it.This shows everything VD was capable of in a face.
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.The picture fully cleaned. Attributed to John Greenhill c 1660.
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Further cleaning has revealed what could be the heraldic device of a clenched gauntlet on apex of brooch in the hair of #theladyinred. Could this be a clue here as to her lost identity?
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We’ve traversed the channel and the Atlantic for the next upcoming series of #Fakeorfortune in search of answers to artistic mysteries. Before long we will be announcing our tenth season’s (yes,really) broadcast dates…
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Cleaning a Philip de Laszlo portrait of Queen Ena of Spain c.1910 (b. Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg). Half a century of polluting city grime - nothing more.
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Ok I’ve said it. Well behaved dogs should be allowed into a lot more museums
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Putting the final conservation touches upon an exceptionally rare life-portrait of the celebrated cockney courtesan, Nell Gwynn that recently came to light. Painted by Simon Verelst in the 1670’s.
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WWI nurse by Sir Oswald Birley (1880-1952) yielding to cleaning solvents today. She was the daughter of a doctor friend whom Birley painted to pay his bill.
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Lavinia Fontana (detail). Regarded by some as first established woman artist, Lavinia was not only family bread-winner, but found time to give birth to 11 children. The subject, a virginal looking courtier, remains a mystery despite our attempts to crack the decorative symbolism.
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1/2 Notice anything curious about this 400 year old portrait of Henry Prince of Wales we recently encountered? Turn it upside and you may see.
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Thanks for watching the last of this present run in these sad times. I’m delighted to report that we are now working on our 11th series, and accepting proposals. See you next year #fakeorfortune.
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When you live in a house as low-slung aged as ours (1628), winter sun is heaven’s gift. 3.46pm today.
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I was all but lynched for taking this photo in the Prado today ( hence finger in way) so at least thought it worth sharing. Fascinating juxtaposition. Rubens on right c1628 copyingTitian on left c1550. One of the few examples of an old master copy improving upon the original.
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In the meantime, and back to the day job, the thrilling emergence from beneath centuries of grime of an as yet unidentified Elizabethan courtier by the exemplary George Gower (1540-1596).
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Bought on a whim in a Petworth antique shop half an hour ago. A plate by Quentin Bell (1910-1996), Vanessa Bell’s son and Virginia Wolfe’s nephew. #Bloomsbury
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Fizzing for Britain: land army artist Dame Laura Knight drew this smouldering nude as WW11 raged about her in 1942. Daring or what? Today’s acquisition.
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We sometimes forget that we too have rainforests in the UK, and they badly need our help. They are artistic gems. Plantlife @Love_plants is the organisation doing so, which I’m proud to be part of. @IanPlantlife
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Speeded up film of the restoration of an added 20th century eyebrow to the battle worn face of Nelson c1799. It had been “doctored” by an American restorer and its removal has brought back a lost historical portrait.
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Thank you all for watching #fakeorfortune - and some very kind comments. Can I leave you with this estimable portrait by Landseer of Prince Albert”s favourite dog, Eros, as a reminder of his talents. Coming from a sight hound owner myself, it doesn’t get much better….
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This recently cleaned portrait of a Cornish girl done during the 1st World War (1916) by Harold Harvey derives part of its appeal from the wooden panel on which it is painted. A wood support tends to achieve a richer, more polished and glowing finish than canvas.
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With thanks to Thames TV archive for digging out my first TV appearance from 1975. I was 15, the programme was Magpie, and I was waffling on about my collection of 18th century shoebuckles. Note the swish cravat.
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2/2 Another pair of eyes showing through a 400 year old portrait of Prince Henry. It is painted over an earlier portrait - possible the same princeling as a younger man. Over time, pigments can become transparent.
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The morning after. One of the very good reasons why we should all think twice about the very kind offer of a home haircut.
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Breaking News! Last seen in public 174 years ago, Charles Dickens by radical female artist Margaret Gilliies. Thought lost, it turned up last year in a box of trinkets in Kwazulu natal! Come see it and the exhibition in Pall Mall from tomorrow #Dickenslostportrait 1/2
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On the left, portrait of a whippet by Thomas Gainsborough, 1768. On the right Cedric, taken 17.30 today. Weaned in four days, Cedric will then join our Pall Mall Gallery as in-house dog (with a special requirement for public relations.)
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A delicious morning watching the gentle return of an Elizabethan complexion. The painting’s manifest quality should navigate us towards an attribution.
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2/2 Studio of Hans Holbein circa 1540. Portrait of Henry 8th - arguably the most potent painted image of kingship ever produced.
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My lockdown project now complete!The full restoration of a 17th cart shed that consisted of no more than two broken down walls. Quoins, props, beams, staddle stones, slates etc all came from local reclamation yards. The barn owl box awaits an occupant…
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Celebrating last day of filming of tenth of #fakeorfortune this evening at the gallery. We straddle 400 years of art in this series. Broadcast date to be announced shortly.
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#fakeorfortune I can barely believe this our tenth series……it was June 2011 when we first cut our teeth, with a hoped-for Monet. A possible Ben Nicholson(?) tonight - an English great. Directed by Nicky Illis, who has been with the show from day one.
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#FakeorFortune series 12 is now in full production. Analysing pigments last week @TheCourtauld
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Thank your for all your generous comments on the latest run of #FakeorFortune. It was testing making this series in lockdown but some great contributors and - of course - some great deceased artists, as always, helped carry the show.
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Trying to look calm over tea and biscuits after lashings of artistic drama on our last day’s filming of series 11 of #fakeorfortune New series coming this autumn.
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Gallery Dog Cedric has now acquired a brother - Bunny - who will be in residence in Pall Mall from December. Cedric was named after the artist Cedric Morris. Bunny was inspired by the writer Bunny Garnett (1892-1981) - Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell’s effective son-in-law.
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The clarity of these images is remarkable.
Archeologists unearth 2200-year-old mosaics in an ancient Greek city named Zeugma in Gaziantep Province, Türkiye. Three new mosaics have been discovered, dated 2nd Century BC, but incredibly well-preserved and look as beautiful and stunning as the first day. Zeugma House of
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While filming #fakeorfortune today at the superb @DorsetMuseum I saw a painting by William Hogarth that is barely known to British art history, but should be. Thomas Coombes (aged 108). 1742.
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2/2 Is this the fingerprint of the genius behind the girl with the pearl earring? A finger print discovered on the Vermeer at Kenwood House, London
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200,000 corpses buried in layers over 400 years (due to lack of alternative sacred space) gives the Jewish cemetery in Prague an extraordinarily intense atmosphere that artists like Adolf Menzel & others sought to capture in paint. It’s worth visiting - as I did today.
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For those enquiring Cedric is a whippet and hangs out at the gallery. He has an art dealer’s nose, and wears scarves. This was him in winter #fakeorfortune
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Midway cleaning. A century or two of European grime is dissolved with restorer’s solvents.
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All I can show you is this. A scrapyard in Essex. Make of it what you will. But it is where we found evidence this morning for the next series of #fakeorfortune (due out next summer.)
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In answer to your questions we are calling the Gallery whippet Cedric after the painter of plants & birds and occasional dog - Cedric Morris
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The issue here is that there is no modern vernacular for heroic sculpture of women (and probably men these days too). I applaud the idea but this belongs to the ‘cake decoration school’ of figural portrayal. #diana
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Just witnessed this terracotta cast by Von Gleichen (1871) of amazing Mary Seacole - Crimean nurse and inspirator - leave behind its £700 - £1,000 estimate to make £101,000 at Dominic Winter auctioneers. I hope she’s found a good home. We would have loved to have given her one.
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A severed head! Who is he? This can only be an abandoned portrait by Reynolds himself. An abandoned canvas? A first idea?
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Late 16th century aristocratic portraiture in Prague reminds one of a forgotten truth that applied to Britain’s blokes too: male legs turned heads.
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Saved from the skip! This exceptionally beautiful plaster was modelled in clay in front of an art class by sculpter/teacher Jules Dalou in 1877 and would have been chucked in a bin and ground to dust hadn’t a student niftily got hold of it and produced this cast.
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#Fakeorfortune starts this coming Tuesday at 8.00pm with a double conundrum. Is this mural - painted straight onto a bedroom wall - by the great abstract master Ben Nicholson? And if so, can it ever be safely removed? @BBCOne @bbcarts
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A recently cleaned Lowry indicating that humanity does not really change. A view from our Gallery window today.
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