Bendor Gerard Robert Grosvenor (born 27 November 1977) is a British

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

, writer and former

art dealer An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationshi ...

. He is known for discovering a number of important

lost artworks Lost artworks are original pieces of art that credible sources indicate once existed but that cannot be accounted for in museums or private collections or are known to have been destroyed deliberately or accidentally, or neglected through igno ...

by Old Master artists, including Sir Peter Paul Rubens,

Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in It ...

and Peter Brueghel the Younger. As a dealer he specialised in Old Masters, with a particular interest in

Anthony 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 c ...

. From 2011 to 2016 he carried out specialist research for, and appeared in, 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 ...

''. He now presents, with

Emma Dabiri Emma Dabiri is an Irish author, academic, and broadcaster. Her debut book, ''Don't Touch My Hair'', was published in 2019. Biography Dabiri was born in Dublin to an Irish mother and a Nigerian Yoruba father. After spending her early years i ...

( Jacky Klein in Series 1), the

BBC4 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 ''Britain's Lost Masterpieces'' is a factual BBC Four documentary television series that aims to uncover overlooked art treasures in British public collections, in conjunction with Art UK. It is presented by Bendor Grosvenor, along with art his ...

'', which began in 2016.

Life and work

Grosvenor was born on 27 November 1977 in London. His parents are Hon. Richard Alexander Grosvenor and Gabriella Grosvenor. He was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

before attending the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

for his BA Hons. He then received an MPhil from

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

and a DPhil from the University of East Anglia. His PhD thesis was entitled ''"The Politics of Foreign Policy: Lord Derby and the Eastern Crisis, 1875-8"''. Before becoming an art historian he worked in politics as an adviser, first to the Labour MP Tony Banks, Lord Stratford, then to the Conservative MP

Hugo Swire Hugo George William Swire, Baron Swire, (born 30 November 1959) is a British politician. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Devon from 2001 until 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he has had several ministerial roles ...

. His first major art discovery was a mis-catalogued portrait by

Sir Thomas Lawrence Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at t ...

being sold at a London auction in 2003 as a work by Lawrence's pupil

George Henry Harlow George Henry Harlow (10 June 1787 – 4 February 1819) was an English painter known mostly for his portraits. Life Harlow was born in St. James's Street, London, the posthumous son of a China merchant, who after some years' residence in ...

. From 2005 until 2014, he worked for

Philip Mould Philip Jonathan Clifford Mould (born March 1960) is an English art dealer, London gallery owner, art historian, writer and broadcaster. He has made a number of major art discoveries, including works of Thomas Gainsborough, Anthony Van Dyck and ...

Ltd, where he made a number of significant art historical discoveries, including lost works by artists such as

Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...

, and

Sir Anthony 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 c ...

, on whom he is an acknowledged specialist. In 2016 he sold a newly identified portrait by

Joan Carlile Joan Carlile or Carlell or Carliell (c. 1606–1679), was an English portrait painter. She was one of the first British women known to practise painting professionally. Before Carlile, known professional female painters working in Britain were ...

, the first professional British female artist, to the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

gallery. In 2017, he discovered the "lost portrait" of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham at

Pollok House Pollok House, formerly the family seat of the Stirling-Maxwell family, is located at Pollok Country Park in Glasgow, Scotland (which also houses the Burrell Collection). Overview The house, built in 1752 and originally thought to be designed ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, Scotland. The painting was thought to be a copy of a painting 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 traditio ...

that had been lost for nearly 400 years, but after restoration was found to be the original by Rubens. Grosvenor has been a member of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Council on National Records and Archives, and the Lord Chancellor's Forum for Historical Manuscripts and Academic Research. He also works as a journalist and writer, and presents programmes for BBC2's ''

The Culture Show ''The Culture Show'' is a British magazine programme about books, art, film, architecture, music, visual fashion and the performing arts. The show was broadcast weekly on BBC Two between 2004 and 2015. Early history Launched in November 2004, th ...

''. He was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as an adult and has advocated improved accessibility at museums. In 2015, he married Ishbel Hall and he has one daughter and two step-sons.

Jacobite portraiture

Grosvenor has made a special study of Jacobite portraiture. In 2009 he proved the Scottish National Portrait Gallery's iconic portrait of

Charles Edward Stuart Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (20 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, grandson of James II and VII, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and ...

Maurice Quentin de La Tour Maurice Quentin de La Tour (5 September 1704 – 17 February 1788) was a French Rococo portraitist who worked primarily with pastels. Among his most famous subjects were Voltaire, Rousseau, Louis XV of France, Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour. ...

was in fact a portrait of Charles' brother

Henry Benedict Stuart Henry Benedict Thomas Edward Maria Clement Francis Xavier Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York (6 March 1725 – 13 July 1807) was a Roman Catholic cardinal, as well as the fourth and final Jacobite heir to publicly claim the thrones of Great Brit ...

, Cardinal Duke of York. In 2013 he discovered the

lost portrait of Charles Edward Stuart The "lost portrait" of Charles Edward Stuart is a portrait, painted in late autumn 1745 by Scottish artist Allan Ramsay, of Charles Edward Stuart, also known as the Young Pretender or Bonnie Prince Charlie. The painting was discovered by art ...

by Scottish artist Allan Ramsay at

Gosford House Gosford House is a neoclassical country house around northeast of Longniddry in East Lothian, Scotland, on the A198 Aberlady Road, in of parkland and coast. It is the family seat of the Charteris family, the Earls of Wemyss and March. It was t ...

, the home of the

Earl of Wemyss Earl of Wemyss ( ) is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created in 1633. The Scottish Wemyss family had possessed the lands of Wemyss in Fife since the 12th century. Since 1823 the earldom has been held with the Earldom of March, created in ...

near

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. This portrait is now on display at the

Scottish National Portrait Gallery The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. The gallery holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Co ...

, and has taken the place of the La Tour pastel as the definitive portrait of Charles.

Ancestry

The name ''Bendor'' is derived from the

Grosvenor family Duke of Westminster is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster. It is the most recent dukedom conferred on someone not related to the ...

's medieval heraldic shield, ''a bend or'', a golden bend (diagonal stripe), which they used until 1389, when it was claimed instead by the Scrope family in the case ''

Scrope v Grosvenor ''Scrope v Grosvenor'' (1389) was an early intellectual property lawsuit, specifically regarding the law of arms. One of the earliest heraldic cases brought in England, the case resulted from two different knights in King Richard II's servi ...

''. The 2nd Duke of Westminster was nicknamed "Bendor". Grosvenor is a grandson of

Robert Grosvenor, 5th Baron Ebury Robert Egerton Grosvenor, 5th Baron Ebury, DSO (8 February 1914 – 5 May 1957), was a British peer, military officer and racing driver. Life and family He was the elder son of Francis Egerton Grosvenor, 4th Baron Ebury, and his wife Mary Adela G ...

, and fifth cousin of

Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster (born 29 January 1991), styled as Earl Grosvenor until August 2016, is a British aristocrat, billionaire, businessman, and owner of Grosvenor Group. He became Duke of Westminster on 9 August ...

. He is also of

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

and Dutch heritage. His father's eldest half-brother is

Francis Grosvenor, 8th Earl of Wilton Francis Egerton Grosvenor, 8th Earl of Wilton (born 8 February 1934) is a British aristocrat, financier, and academic. He is the eldest son of Robert Egerton Grosvenor, 5th Baron Ebury, and his first wife, Anne Acland-Troyte. He succeeded his f ...

.Mosley, Charles (editor). ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage'', 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. Volume 3, page 4208.

Publications

* * * * *

Filmography

*''

'' (2016) *''

'' (2011-2016) *''The Lost Portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Culture Show Special'' (2014) *''The Culture Show - Venice: A Tale of Two Cities'' (2013)

References

External links

Art History News, run by Bendor Grosvenor
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grosvenor, Bendor 1977 births Living people People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of East Anglia English art dealers BBC people Fake or Fortune? Bendor People from Westminster