Cecil Hilton Monk Gould (24 May 1918 – 7 April 1994) was 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, ...

and

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

who specialised in

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

painting. He was a former Keeper and Deputy Director of the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

in London.

Life

Born in London in 1918, Gould was the son of Admiralty Lieutenant-Commander Rupert Gould, the restorer of

John Harrison John Harrison ( – 24 March 1776) was a self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea. Harrison's solution revo ...

's chronometers and well-known panellist of the BBC's "Brains Trust" programme during WWII, and Muriel Estall. Gould was educated at Kingswood House preparatory school, near Epsom, and then at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

. When he was nine, Gould's mother permanently separated from his father and raised Cecil and his sister Jocelyne. After leaving school he began studying at the

Courtauld Institute The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist c ...

in 1939, although he was not able to complete his degree due to the outbreak of World War II. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

he served as

Pilot Officer Pilot officer (Plt Off officially in the RAF; in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly P/O in all services, and still often used in the RAF) is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countri ...

Gould in R.A.F. Intelligence, first in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

from 1941 to 1943 and then in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. In early 1945 he was transferred to the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program under the Civil Affairs and Military Government Sections of the Allied armies, which was established in 1943 to help protect cultural property in war areas during and after World War II. The group of approximately 400 service members and civilians, known commonly as the "Monuments Men", worked with military forces to safeguard historic and cultural monuments from war damage, and as the conflict came to a close, to find and return works of art and other items of cultural importance that had been stolen by the Nazis or hidden for safekeeping. During the war Gould's sister Jocelyne worked at

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

. After the war, he joined the National Gallery staff in 1946 and worked there until his retirement in 1987. He was Keeper and Deputy Director for the last five years of his tenure. Upon retiring from the National Gallery he moved to

Thorncombe Thorncombe is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It was historically, until 1844, an exclave of Devon. It lies five miles (8 km) south east of the town of Chard in neighbouring Somerset. Thorncombe is situated cl ...

in West Dorset. He was a prolific author, publishing many books and articles during his career. In 1970, Gould established that the National Gallery's ''

Portrait of Pope Julius II ''Portrait of Pope Julius II'' is an oil painting of 1511–1512 by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael. The portrait of Pope Julius II was unusual for its time and would carry a long influence on papal portraiture. From early in its lif ...

'' was the

prime version In the art world, if an artwork exists in several versions, the one known or believed to be the earliest is called the prime version. Many artworks produced in media such as painting or carved sculpture which create unique objects are in fact r ...

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual ...

and not a copy, as had previously been thought. He was also responsible for a new attribution of a work to

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was ins ...

. In his last years Gould lived with his younger sister Jocelyne Stacey in the village of

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

. Towards the end of his life, with his health declining, Cecil was made a ''correspondant'' (foreign associate) of the Institut de France. He developed a brain tumour and, after a short illness, died on 7 April 1994. Gould never married and was survived by Jocelyne. A collection of Gould's large-format black-and-white photographs of Islamic architecture in Cairo, taken during World War II, is in the

RIBA The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

library. Other photographs taken by Gould are held in the Conway Library at the

and are currently being digitised. Gould was portrayed during his childhood in the 2000

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

television drama about

's chronometers, ''

Longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek let ...

''. He was played by child actor Joe Williams.IMDb
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Partial bibliography

*''The Sixteenth Century Venetian School'' 1959 (National Gallery Catalogue Series) *''The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools (excluding the Venetian)'' 1962 (National Gallery Catalogue Series) * The last two were revised and combined as: ''The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools'' 1975 (National Gallery Catalogue Series) *''Michelangelo: Battle of Cascina'' 1966 University of Newcastle upon Tyne *''Titian'' 1969 Hamlyn *(with Martin Davies) ''French School: Early 19th Century Impressionists, Post-Impressionists etc.'' 1970 (National Gallery Catalogue Series) *''Leonardo: The Artist and the Non-Artist'' 1975 Weidenfeld and Nicolson *''The Paintings of Correggio'' 1978 Cornell University Press *''Bernini in France: An Episode in Seventeenth Century History'' 1981 Weidenfeld and Nicolson *''Parmigianino'' 1995 Abbeville Press

Sources

*Betts, Jonathan (2006) ''Time Restored: The Harrison timekeepers and R. T. Gould, the man who knew (almost) everything'', Oxford University Press . * Levey, Michael (1994) 'Cecil Gould (1918–94)', ''The Burlington Magazine'', Volume 136, 554.

References

External links

Gould describes the discovery of a new RaphaelTribute to Cecil Gould in Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art website.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gould, Cecil 1918 births 1994 deaths British art historians Monuments men English curators People associated with the National Gallery, London Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art People educated at Westminster School, London Royal Air Force officers People educated at Kingswood House School 20th-century British historians Royal Air Force personnel of World War II