Jean Gimpel (1918–1996)

Jean Gimpel was born in Paris, France, one of three sons of a French father, the well-known art dealer René Gimpel, and an English mother, Florence Duveen. His two brothers, Charles and Peter, also became art dealers. He was brought up in luxury and was educated in France, Britain, and Switzerland. He made a living as a diamond broker before establishing himself as an art critic and historian.

During World War II, Jean Gimpel served in the French Resistance, for which he was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Resistance Medal, and the Legion of Honor. After the war, he produced a television program for the BBC called "Don't Take It for Granted," describing the pitfalls of authenticating works of art. It was during this time that he developed his profound and very practical interest in technology, especially that of the Middle Ages, which stayed with him all his working life. This interest was the basis of two classic books, The Cathedral Builders (1958) and The Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages (1976), and underpinned two further books, The Cult of Art: Against
Art and

Artists (1968) and The End of the Future (1995). In 1987, Gimpel became a founding vice-president of the Society for the History of Medieval Technology and Science. He was also a founder of Models for Rural Development, part of the Appropriate Technology movement.
He gave lectures at Yale University, the University of Southern California, Lehigh University, the University of Delaware, The Royal Oak Foundation, the Albany Institute History of Art, Carnegie-Mellon University, Ironbridge Gorge Museum, and St. George's Chapel, Windsor, among others. He and his wife Catherine Cara maintained a salon in London in his later years.