• Our History

    Thomas Gibson Fine Art Limited was founded in 1969. The gallery quickly gained a successful reputation, and over the years has bought and brokered some of the most important Old Master, 19th and 20th Century pictures to come on the market, including: Edgar Degas’s Chez la modiste to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation, Lugano; J.M.W. Turner’s Staffa, Fingal’s Cave, off the West Coast of Scotland to the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven; Jackson Pollock’s Lavender Mist to the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; and Caravaggio’s Boy Bitten by a Lizard to the National Gallery, London.


    In addition to numbering some of the world’s foremost private collectors amongst its clients, the gallery has sold works to such public institutions as the National Galleries of England, America and Australia; the Dallas Museum of Art; the Des Moines Art Center; the Hamburger Kunsthalle; the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; the Menil Collection, Houston; the Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena; and the Pierre Gianadda Foundation, Martigny. Today the running of the gallery is undertaken by Hugh Gibson, Thomas’s son, who joined Thomas Gibson Fine Art in 2002 having trained at Christie’s, London and Sotheby’s, New York and is now the gallery’s Director. Thomas Gibson continues to act in an advisory role and devotes much of his energy to sourcing works of art for the gallery and private clients. Thomas Gibson Fine Art is a member of the Society of London Art Dealers.

  • Hugh Gibson

    Hugh Gibson

    Hugh Gibson, Thomas Gibson's son, obtained a degree from the City & Guilds of London Art School. He started his career in the art world working for a variety of dealers before moving onto, successively, Christie’s in London and Sotheby’s in New York. In 2002, Hugh joined Thomas Gibson Fine Art, becoming Director two years later, and took over ownership of the gallery in 2015.

    Under Hugh’s helm the gallery has continued to play an active role in the Society of London Art Dealers, of which he served on the Executive Committee between 2012-2015. He has also enhanced the visibility of the gallery at international fairs, since 2006 exhibiting at Art Basel, the prestigious The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) in Maastricht and New York, Frieze Masters in London, and Masterpiece London.
    Hugh has increased the gallery’s holdings of Contemporary art, leading to solo exhibitions of Eric Fischl (2007), Richard Diebenkorn (2007), and Raqib Shaw (2009), as well as a survey show of British Post-War art in 2006.

    In 2011 Thomas Gibson Fine Art was designated one of the top 10 fastest growing businesses based in London, in a countdown of 20 compiled by the publication London loves Business. It was the only art gallery to feature in the list.

  • Thomas Gibson

    Thomas Gibson

    Thomas Gibson was born in Buenos Aires in 1943 of Scottish descent, graduating from Eton College in England in 1961. He began his art dealing career in 1963 when he joined Editions Alecto, London, as Gallery Manager, assisting in the publication of David Hockney’s “Rake’s Progress.” This was followed by the temporary assignment of Special Sales Representative at the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, and then came a five-year stint with the Marlborough Galleries in London and New York. At the end of 1969, Gibson returned to England and founded Thomas Gibson Fine Art Limited. The gallery quickly gained a successful reputation, and in 1974 Gibson was joined by his old friend, the Earl of Gowrie, who worked with the gallery until 1979, when he returned to politics, eventually joining the Cabinet and being appointed Arts Minister.

    The gallery has been a member of the Society of London Art Dealers for many years, where Gibson served on the Executive Committee between 1987 and 1989.

    In May 1996 Gibson retired as Chairman of Thomas Gibson Fine Art Limited and founded Thomas Gibson Fine Art Advisory Services. Gibson’s main client during the period 1996 to 2000 was Christie’s International PLC. for whom he grew the private treaty department. When Gibson’s contract with the auction house ended he expanded the number of clients he worked for both in the areas of purchase and disposal of works of art. In 2008-2010, Gibson, working closely with his son Hugh (who is now the Director of Thomas Gibson Fine Art), disposed of a single collection of 19th and 20th Century art and furniture whose value exceeded $180 million and contained hundreds of art works. On the acquisition front he has been helping put together what is almost certainly the fastest growing private collection of 19th and early 20th Century art. He is, however, equally happy to help clients acquire and dispose of more modestly priced works of high quality.