Portrait delivered in sleeping bag stuns presenters of BBC show Fake Or Fortune?
An “extraordinarily important” portrait estimated to be worth over £100,000 has been uncovered on BBC programme Fake Or Fortune?.
In the latest episode on TV tonight, a painting, delivered wrapped in a sleeping bag, was confirmed to be a work by 18th-century Scottish artist Katherine Read and verified as the earliest recorded painting of an Indian sitter by a European female artist.
Co-presenter and art dealer Phillip Mould said: “We have just witnessed a significant baptism in art historical terms, and now that we have a very significant artist – and we also have a highly likely subject – this is a hugely hot area in the art market. We’re looking at £100,000 upwards.
“What a wonderful result, I’m sure we’re going to see more works by this pioneering woman artist in India coming out of the woodwork.”
Retired accountant Mary-Louise Wedderburn was left a painting in her uncle’s will two decades ago of an Indian woman in a formal pose, wearing a string of pearls, a large emerald pendant and a nose ring.
She always believed the painting may have been painted by Read, her distant relative Read, but turned to the Fake or Fortune? team for confirmation.
Read was a well-known portraitist who specialised in painting women and children. Studying in Europe, she moved professionally in elite circles but became largely forgotten as fashions changed and many of her works were later reattributed to male artists.
Presenters Fiona Bruce and Mould were tasked with finding authentic Read works to compare with the portrait of the Indian woman. They trawled through dense family archives, spoke to experts and gathered letters and wills that could bring fresh insights into Read’s life in India.
They pieced together not only the story of Read but also the people she may have painted, including the Nawabs of Arcot and the local Mughal rulers. With the help of experts Professor Catriona Seth, Ashvin Rajagopalan and artist Lachlan Goudie, the art detectives discovered more about Read’s “intrepid, bold and eccentric character” and how she traveled across Europe to Chennai in India, then known as Madras.
British art historian Charles Greig concluded: “This has been one of the trickiest paintings I’ve ever had to consider.” After saying he was “entirely certain that this painting is by Katherine Read”, Mr Greig added: “It is the first painting of an Indian by a European woman artist that is recorded, and that in itself is extraordinarily important.”
Ms Wedderburn was initially lost for words at the result, and said: “It’s wonderful, it’s unbelievable. It’s just so important to me that it’s by Katherine Read, because of the family connection, but also because of who she was.
“The more that we find out about Katherine Read, the more I think she was just a wonderful woman, she was just super. It’s been a fabulous journey, and for Charles to be so categoric about the attribution is fabulous.”
Co-host Fiona Bruce asked her if she would one day sell the painting but she no, and added that it felt an “even bigger responsibility” now to look after the painting and to put it somewhere “safe as well as public” for others to enjoy.
Bruce said: “For Mary-Lou, she has loved this picture for so long, she so wanted it to be by Katherine Read. If, as Mary-Lou wants, it can be in an exhibition, in a gallery, where the whole world can see this picture, Mary-Lou will have given this woman not only a voice, but she will be seen. In a sense she will be brought to life and I think that’s just a brilliant result.”
* Fake Or Fortune? airs on Thursdays at 8pm on BBC One and is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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