Gillian Brendon Wilson

1941 - 2019

November 26, 1941 - November 15, 2019 Gillian Wilson, curator emerita of French decorative arts at the J. Paul Getty Museum, died on November 15, 2019, after a long illness. She joined the museum's staff in 1971, and amassed a world-famous collection of French furniture and porcelain, principally from the reigns of Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI, presented in galleries at the Getty Museum that were specially created by French designer Thierry Despont. Miss Wilson served as a curator at the Getty until 2003, and in that time wrote and co-authored a stream of catalogues and studies published by the Museum, including her monumental French Baroque Furniture (2008) and her French Rococo Ébénisterie (forthcoming), Mounted Oriental Porcelain (1982, 2d ed. 1999), European Clocks (1976, 2d ed. 1996), and summary catalogues of the whole collection (1977, 1986, 2001). She published numerous scholarly articles in her field, in particular J. Paul Getty Museum Journal and in Furniture History, starting with her famous initial study on "Boulle" in Furniture History in 1972. For her tireless efforts she was awarded France's title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1988. Gillian Wilson was born in England in 1941, one of three children of Margaret and Philip Wilson. She studied art at London University, and went on to work at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1964, where she specialized in textile conservation, and then woodwork. A colorful character, she often laughed about her youthful adventures as an art student; she hired the Rolling Stones to play at a school dance for a sum of five pounds (one pound per Stone). In 1970, Miss Wilson was given a Clawson Mills Fellowship in the Department of Western European Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where she spent one year researching gilt-bronze furniture mounts; it was at this time that she was approached about joining the Getty Museum's staff in its then-home at the Getty Ranch House in Malibu, which contained a small collection of paintings, antiquities, and French furniture. She moved to Los Angeles and played a major role in the creation of the Getty Villa in Malibu and, years later, the Getty Center in Brentwood. Miss Wilson knew J. Paul Getty personally; she would fly to England to discuss acquisitions with him at Sutton Place, his home (the famous industrialist did not like to fly). She successfully advised him on the expansion of the museum's collection of French decorative arts. After Mr. Getty's death in 1976, she secured for the Museum important acquisitions such as the Boulle cabinet in 1977, the Jacques Dubois corner cabinet in 1979, the comte de Toulouse Beauvais tapestry Series of the Emperor of China in 1984, and the Ledoux paneled room in 1998. She is survived by her nephew, Daniel Adler, and his two children, and her niece, Katherine Adler, and her three children. A funeral service will be private. A memorial will be held in early 2020 at the Getty Center, in celebration of Miss Wilson's remarkable career and accomplishments.