FAKE OR FORTUNE SE2EO3 ANTHONY VAN DYCK

nice the art world a place about rageous fortune selling 95 million off but beneath the surface looks danger I probably turned out about 200 fakes over a six seven year period your committee for and scale international art dealer Philip mold uncovers sleepers pictures with a secret past now he's bringing his detective skills to solve more mysteries locked in paint in the past we looked at pictures now almost you can look through them I'm Fiona Bruce as a journalist I'm used to hunting for facts we're teaming up for a new series of investigations our latest case takes us into new territory as we hunt for a painting hidden within a painting there's also something going on here isn't there Philip is staking his reputation on what might be the find of his life I've lost the ability to look at it critically you know I feel like a mother with her baby I mean I I can't see anything other than beautiful it's a portrait of a tragic Queen Henrietta Maria wife of King Charles the first could it be the work of Sir Anthony Van Dyck the man who revolutionized English art like a film director it's almost as if he's distracted action to unravel the mystery we must peel back layers of paint in search of a lost masterpiece has something gone terribly wrong it all makes [Music] Chelsea Westminster Hospital people I love the excitement of chasing down a screen and working with art dealer Philip mold has introduced me to a new world of intrigue this time it's his own painting which is wrapped in mystery Phillips called meat an unusual location where he promises all will be revealed well thanks for asking I'm fine but um I have a patient who needs help but she's a woman with a predicament she's actually more than just your average woman she's the Queen of England well I believe there's more going on in this than first meets the eye here we go again our dealers and doctors of such unusual bedfellows in the days before portable x-ray units this was where you came to get your paintings scanned to help with my diagnosis we're using one of the most sophisticated x-ray machines available once the real patients have had their turn radiologist Anton Ivanych is on hand to help did you get many patients like this Anton so what are we looking at here is this the edge of the painting what we're seeing here is something I really hoped we're going to come across as clear as a bell you can see a 90-degree angle of the corner of a smaller canvas in other words this picture is not as it seems this is the edge of a picture within the painting exactly and if you have a look at the inner canvas the darker one is slightly earlier in my view it's bit cruder but why would anyone want to take a smaller portrait and make it bigger I mean just for cosmetic reasons possibly but we weren't really mentally have a closer look at what might lie beneath because in the process of putting the smaller canvas into the bigger canvas it's quite possible they haven't painted over what lies there in Wow so not only is there a painter in a painting this smaller painting could be of something different exactly it turns out Phillip is hoping that this is what he calls a sleeper a sleeper is an object that passes miss catalogued through the auction rooms into the hands of someone who knows it's real identity either the subject has been overlooked or the artist has been misunderstood on the bottom of my screen Anton I conceive something that looks quite interesting is any way of moving in a bit closer yes so what is that what's what are we looking at here what's going on there's a all burst roast and it's describing a different type of shape possibly a different type of composition the first hint that this picture might hide a secret came when bendure Grosvenor Phillips eagle-eyed head of research spotted it online in an auction catalog it was cataloged as after Sir Anthony Van Dyck yes to a four to six thousand and I just saw it in the catalog and being a van Dyck in Iraq I just wanted to check what we were dealing with here and the first thing I noticed was how much better painted the face was than the body the body made no sense at all awful hands very awkwardly painted clothes but the face still shone out so there's two mysteries here why was the smaller painting enlarged in this way as we can see and then what actually this smaller painting is or what lies underneath the paint than we can see but I know you've accused me in the past of being over optimistic but my hunch is that there's a possibility that lying beneath is a genuine work by the greatest portrait painter work in the 17th century and I have to think really carefully about how much we're going to commit to buying a sleeper you can very quickly spend a lot of money but nothing drives an art dealer forward like optimism and hope they think they've found the big one like all the speculations at that stage we couldn't be sure and I gave a bend or an amount to bid on what I think he doesn't know is that I was particularly excited about this picture and I was gonna go some way ahead of what we agreed 7,000 pounds on the telephone and sing at 7,000 pounds after seven powerful and filly doll that's been doors happy face in case you're wondering his and Phillips shared passion for Van Dyck means they've bought multi-million pound works by the artist including his self-portrait even on the floor it looks amazing doesn't it this Flemish painter spent less than ten years here but he revolutionised British art he painted King Charles the first and his wife Henrietta Maria in a tumultuously age just before the Civil War only a few years later the king was executed outside the banqueting house at Whitehall and Henrietta Maria reviled for her Catholic faith was exiled mourning her beloved husband van Dijk captured the dramatic flamboyant spirit of the age no wonder art dealers get excited about him at Phillips gallery we've met up with bender to get to the bottom of their latest high-stakes gamble 7,000 pound sounds like a lot of money to me it's about the right price for a picture that's a copy done possibly who knows century later but there's more to this picture you'll recall the x-ray showed that there was a smaller image beneath if I bring up the x-ray over the part of the picture here you can see that this parts of the brushstroke match the painting on top but there's other brushstrokes I bring those off which make no sense at all to the painting on top so it suggests at me there's another painting underneath do you have any idea what it could be we have an inkling what the first thing I noticed when I saw the pitch in the cattle was it's unusual for a portrait Henrietta Maria she's normally facing the other direction and she never usually wears a crown this is a full length of her with her servant and this is a picture of checkers Prime Minister's house but then I remembered that some years ago Philip had sold another picture of an area where she's looking the same way and she's also wearing a crown I see so their heads the same but the body or see is different yes in other words the blue dress is painted over the original composition hang on a minute though this was sold at a major auction house and you spotted it what no one else did well of course we could be wrong and also I mean it is concrete hidden in my view here's where it gets a little bit complicated going back to our x-ray again can you see in the bottom right hand corner there's a dark shadow going up now it happens to go up in the same place as the arm in the picture that Phillip sold before so that's just to me that underneath our painting is another arm going in the same place so you think what it's going to be exactly the same thing yes this composition is known in at least seven paintings but they're all copies and I've got four of them here crucially not have been accepted as a genuine work by Van Dyck so there must be an original from which all of these derive so you think the painting you found could be what this lost original Van Dyck and then someone's painted over it how would they do that it's not uncommon I'm sounds bizarre but people did paint over pictures thing is though normally when we look at paintings we're looking at other people's paintings and this time we're looking at your painting that you've bought with your money so we're gonna have to approach this in a rather different way because you have so much to gain and conversely so much to lose so you know we can't just take in the nicest possible way just take your words for it we're gonna have to bring in an independent expert at the very least to have a look at it I mean that's crucial I mean we want to do that anytime that when it's trying to represent a major new work of art we've got to have the connoisseurs but I hope you'll treat me gently on this this will be the toughest of scrutiny for it well it's gotta be though hasn't it it absolutely has to be and first of all can we find out if there actually is something underneath this painting well we need to do some tests I'm taking the painting to University College London to Libby Sheldon a specialist in paint analysis with a keen interest in Van Dyck usually when I look at paint samples I'm hoping to confirm a particular period or perhaps detective fake this time it's a little different what I'd like to find us on polls that show two completely different layers of paint one painting on top of another what I'm looking for are cracks in the paint in order to be able to take minimal samples that's interesting so you're actually examining or taking a sample from an area where nature has already started as a word lippies taking microscopic samples from the paint layers on the canvas they'll be preserved in resin blocks each block cut and polished by hand so she doesn't lose any of the precious paint at the same time she's taken some my new flakes of individual colors to find out precisely what pigments have been used the first discovery comes from the face a blue called azurite typical of the early 17th century and frequently used by Van Dyck but Libby's next find is from what I believed to be the later paint what I can see some very distinct blobs of blue yes it's from the upper painting from the from the dress and it's Prussian blue and it has a very secure date because it was produced after 1704 that's really nice clarity so we're looking at something that was at least done 50 years after Van Dyck dies so that really clearly establishes that the dress is much later exactly what we got here is a sample from than her shoulder and it shows quite clearly the Prussian blue on the top and then there between that and the under lower layer which is translucent layer probably varnish probably a little varnish and underneath that a mixed red in other words two pictures the picture on top and another picture beneath the think we'd be looking for exactly now armed with this evidence I can't wait to get to work revealing that hidden painting what are you planning to do next well as they say in the trade there is a brilliant to clean in this we know that already because we've done a small test in the top right hand corner on the outer area the area which will probably discard if all goes well now keep that in mind have a look at the face of Henrietta Maria and see what the changes that could be brought about might be there but the thing is you've got to take the paint off there what 18th century paint to reveal you ho 17th century paint below that how are you gonna say one layer of paint off and not the other go you know how to rule my fart there here I mean that's the really difficult bit and that's the bit I'm genuinely extremely worried about I mean getting 18th century paint of 17th century paint it's like taking a layer of one type of rock off another I mean it it's extremely difficult so is it worth it I mean if this were just any 17th century picture line beneath I would probably say no but look look at the stakes here and we have the opportunity possibly to get to the greatest artist at work in England in the 17th century it was Sir Anthony Van Dyck I mean not just England but Europe in this case it's a risk worth taking so off goes Queen Henrietta Maria to Rebekah Greg a conservator experienced in such challenges she's agreed to take on the arduous task of stripping first the varnish and then the 18th century paint such a beautiful images and they die I mean regardless of anything else that dirt that varnish was obscuring so much that one does couldn't even see you could even feel these discolored varnish layers always obscure any modelling and completely flatten the image so they destroy the character really of a portrait it's like rediscovering a new person when you clean it off now for the point of no return time to put Henrietta Maria under the knife okay this really is the moment of truth now so we're going to be taking off that rock-hard 18th century paint and with a prayer we'll get to a 17th century layer yeah it's the it's the most tricky thing that you could possibly do really [Music] I mean of course the other thing that occurs to me is I mean you have to keep really focused over a long period of time I mean this is this is open-heart surgery over not just a day or a few days but weeks months yes it's the safest way to remove anything like this is to simply go down layer by layer [Music] Rebecca is using a solvent gel which will break down the top layer of paint it should allow her to remove the eighteenth-century layer without damaging what might lie beneath it requires perfect timing and a steady hand you again it's definitely pink that's coming through there's presumably it's part of the wrist or the hands that that's covered by the blue dress it isn't it's great to have a distinct change in color I have to say Rebecca well you know watching this is compelling but it's also extremely stressful I think it's probably about time I left you to it actually I've got a long wait ahead of me it will take months of work to remove the vast expanse of over painting standing behind Rebecca Schroeder has been the most uplifting experience I'm absolutely positive that emerging from beneath the grime are the strokes of Van Dyck I mean that incontrovertibly has such quality I really can't see why they're not bold claims from Philip but what will the art world make of it Robin Simon editor of the British art journal is intrigued well let's suppose that when this is cleaned there pops what looks very much like an authentic an autograph Van Dyck how seriously will everyone take it well there are problems if it's a dealer presenting it to the world as an authentic Van Dyck obviously many many people are going to say well he would say that wouldn't he he wants it to be a Van Dyck and so to a certain extent he's got a battle on his hands one of the risks of being in their sleep and a business is you tend to annoy a lot of people he irritate the person who sold it you irritate the auction house who misters he irritates your fellow dealers who didn't spot it so you've got a whole host of people who were lining up to take a kick at you if they think you are wrong he must get it authenticated or accepted by what are still called independent scholars and that means academics people aren't giving their opinion for money who knows if there is a whole van Dijk underneath that would be a sensation [Music] to show me just what all the fuss is about Philips brought me to Wilton house home to a spectacular collection of art charting the history of English portraits this is the sort of portraiture that people were used to in England before Van Dyck arrived simplified ins and oddly static and rather wooden yes Wilton's grandest room was designed by the fourth Earl of Pembroke one of Charles the first most powerful courtiers specifically to house the paintings of Sir Anthony Van Dyck it includes his largest and most ambitious work [Music] isn't it incredible this expresses in one great statement just what fan-type brought to England and we just transformed the whole way we see ourselves it is epic like a film director it's almost as if he's distracted action in everyone's beginning to move everyone has a role in the purpose and they all look together so in the center again we've got the Earl and his wife they are looking every inch the powerhouse and you can see on the stage moving towards the Earl and Countess the two elder brothers this is where the future dynasty lies and you notice how their father is pointing down that very indicative way to that ultimate prize this is a portrait of Lady Mary Aviles who was ward of court of Charles the first effectively an adopted royal child if I'm not mistaken that's Charles the first and Henrietta Maria flanking on the sides of the painting why are they here in relation to Van Dyck because that's what I've and I came over here his job is to create images to bolster not only the king but his consort Henrietta Maria the way he portrays them as they would like to be portrayed to the nation and that's the whole point about Van Dyck Charles the first and Harriet and Maria are a perfect example of people who do look slightly idiosyncratic very slightly strange yes her nieces cried was having teeth that protruded like guns from a fort I love that scripture yes but the thing about Van Dyck the reason people liked him was that he could catch a face with his best expression on it these are all believable individuals but they're individuals and they're most elevated and they're both powerful and it's been estimated that he produced something like four hundred pictures paintings portraits while he was over here the demand for images of the royal family and for Brett because of other portraits you need like the pen books was so much that he had to use a delegation process which is called the studio practice I mean it was physically impossible for one man to be able to produce that amount of work so could you own a van Dyck by degrees then so have a painting that's done entirely by the great master one that's done what partly by him partly by his assistants then once done entirely by his assistants and then ones that weren't by anyone to do with that like it hurt what precisely and there were some patrons there were some clients who insisted the Van Dyck did it all himself today it's the hand of the master that makes all the difference not just in the quality but also the value of a painting pure Van Dyke's are known as autograph they could be worth millions works created by his assistants unknown as studio Van Dyck and copies made by other artists as after Van Dyck it can take a trained eye to tell them apart where does your Henrietta Maria fit into this spectrum well she's looking interesting some results have come through from Rebecca and you can see now that the varnish has been removed and beneath we can see quite good quality brushstrokes in fact I didn't get further how to say some very exciting paint strokes now with any luck this could be a real pure 100% Van Dyck Wow so you could gain massively from this picture and what about the history of the paint if you found out anything about that as I said before the back of the picture can tell you more than the front and on the back of this picture we have got quite a few possible clues all sorts of labels and stickers and things scribbled on the back I've had a little bit of luck with this one on the right hand side here as a chalk date and that links to the stencil on the top the picture was sold at Christie's in 1956 and there it was actually called Van Dyck in full but identification rather and hopefully was just portrait of a lady in a blue dress so it could be that this picture hasn't actually been called henrietta maria for hundreds of years great what about who sold that painting well it was consigned by a lady called mrs. kingsby and here's her name on the label of the back of the picture but the picture didn't actually sell and went straight into storage afterwards and who was she and who did she buy it from I'm afraid there I hadn't got a clue with some massive problem is me I mean we're always banging on about imports of documentation and provenance and you've hardly got any you can't always get problems for an old master it's not like dealing with an impressionist we're dealing with something what 300 years old or more that's all very well but for a painting that was paid to do the 1600s I'd like to go a bit further back in 1956 well I may be able to help you there because there's two further clues on the back of the picture I don't if you can see at the top there are these two little labels which are partly covered by another piece of paper and also partly ripped off but I reckon we may be able to peel these off and hopefully they can tell us a little bit more about pictures history and we're also aided by the fact that there are a number of copies replicas variants now if we take that line of inquiry look into some of those might come up with a few answers alright well I'll start from the 17th century and work forwards you're going to start from 1956 and work backwards who knows we might meet in the middle we might indeed bendure has set Rebecca the challenge of uncovering the mysterious labels which could be the key to discovering our paintings history hi Rebecca Alvin these labels if we can't get these off the profiles in history sorry no pressure then yeah no pressure it looks like someone else has already tried to have a go I mean we've got lots of rips and tears here hmm well it looks like they just try to remove them entirely yeah well let's at least hope that reveals something before 1956 in perhaps in the 19th century well the older the better the older the glue the more degraded and the easier it is to come up well it looks pretty anxious so fingers crossed Rebecca applies a pad saturated with water slowly soaking the labels in the hope that they can be peeled off meanwhile I've been doing some research on henrietta maria and found she was a controversial queen this French princess arrived for her marriage in England aged just fifteen with a mission from the Pope to convert Protestant England and the king took a solace ISM an explosive ambition now I want to know why our picture might have been painted over and I'm on the trail of the image Phillip and Bendel believe lies beneath it seems this painting might contain hidden messages there's a later copy of the picture at Queens College Oxford and historian dr. Erin Griffey is going to help me decode it what does it tell us about Henriette there well in my mind it is the most significant portrait in terms of understanding what really mattered to the Queen and certainly at the heart of her sort of personal identity was her devotion to religion her Catholicism it is an incredibly unusual image of her in that she's shown as the st. Catherine and who all st. Catherine st. Catherine was a princess who was tried for her faith for her Christianity on the Catherine Wheel and rings a form of torture which was a form of torture but such was divine providence the wheel didn't work the wheel broke and by touching the wheel Henrietta Marie is showing God's favor and presumably she relates to it or she related to it because she was a Catholic in a Protestant country she was a lone voice as this st. Catherine was a lone Christian voice yeah in in a world of pagans as she soars absolutely she's clearly likening herself to Katherine in her ability to create conversions at court from very principled courtiers which was hugely unpopular hugely unpopular and it rattled the King's advisors and and even the king so this is a very controversial image then yes even proclamation of her Catholicism yes other than the Catherine Wheel what other symbolism is there in this portrait well the most important thing may seem self-evident but it's actually very interesting she's wearing the Coronet keep in mind Henrietta Maria was never crowned because she refused to be crowned in a Protestant church in a Protestant ceremony it's a piece of propaganda it absolutely yes it was negatively why Phillips painting of Henrietta Maria would have been over painted quite so comprehensively but it's clear to me now that it's it's not so much a portrait of a queen as a piece of Catholic propaganda and even by the time we get the eighteen essentially that's still very controversial very inflammatory and having a portrait of the queen is one thing but having an image like that is quite another and certainly it's at least one very good reason why that painting would have been painted over in that way back in London Phillips just received images of what starting to emerge from under the later paint and it looks like he was right I've just got some photographs through progress of the picture and I have to say fingers crossed it's looking exactly as I'd hoped you can see very clearly what is a piece of anatomy her forearm are the forearm that sort of leans on the Catherine Wheel and that's a slice of it there and it's exactly in the right place in the and the type of color I would have hoped and then just below the forearm where it's revealed a little bit to the left is a flash of red brilliant the flash of red it looks like a sort of uncut dubious stain that has yet to be polished now that is unquestionably the beginning of the drapery that really rich attire that defines the image no she she is a very ornate looking Queen the back of the painting is also revealing its secrets when law and Rebecca are within a whisper of uncovering those labels they may tell us who once owned the picture just about off and testing I can see a dragon I can see a dragon definitely part of the coat of arms yes we can see what it's been protected from the dirt Wiz looks like we're not gonna get any more motto but we got the rest of the crest just need to faintest scratch on address on that one not much the same so much we've called the end of an H and a comma and that's it nothing at all just take a second up a label up now alright here we go anything after the H the story restorer fantastic the common restorer 1820 maybe they're established in 1820 and wanted uses but it's a short name ending in H that so it must have been very short name the only dealer I can think of with a short name ending in H is Smith I don't know that sounds like a really common name but one of the biggest art dealers in the 19th century was called John Smith and he was also based in New Bond Street and it looks like it says here in F and you and it ending for Street so that'll be my first place to live I think [Music] back in Oxford I'm hoping to match benders progress on the labels in my own quest Aaron has brought me to the board lien library to search the original portrait of Henrietta Maria in the 17th century records of the Royal Palaces this is an inventory compiled in 1639 by the keeper of pictures abraham von der doors and he went through the royal palaces and created an incredibly detailed list of the pictures and precisely where they hung which room and in the margins he also often mentions the provenance for example this is item the Queen Mother of France picture so big as the life so this is very typical of Van der dorit's entries for these various pictures done Oh done by Antony Van Dyck right it says done by Anthony Van Dyck beyond the seas so this is a picture he would have done in Antwerp or in Italy and if you look at the right hand margin these are the dimensions of the various pictures so with Philips picture what we'd really like to find is a very detailed reference saying Van Dyck a portrait of henrietta maria as st. catherine what is it you know frustratingly it is not here is the Henrietta Maria portrait in any inventories unfortunately not explicitly there is nothing by that description in any inventory that I have consulted there are several instances of portraits of Henrietta Maria by Van die in the 1650s and 1660s which could be our painting but there so I'm specifically listed exactly that is absolutely possible how frustrating things aren't going much better for Philip he's working abroad and he's just received disturbing news from Rebecca the restorer it's the end of a busy day here in Hamburg and I've just email from Becky she's halfway through the conservation the first stages of conservation the alarming thing is it looks as though some of the paint has been damaged I'm not sure why or how it's very difficult to make sense from these images I wish I wasn't hundreds of miles away from home I wish I was there with Becky in the studio now trying to make sense of what's coming to light I suppose at least I can cancel my self that the head is beautiful but goodness knows what's emerging from beneath the rest of the painting I'm heading back to London as soon as I can I'm not sure what Rebecca's revealed but it could be an expensive disaster a few days later Philip calls me to the gallery he's had some time to examine the picture and thinks he's made a dramatic discovery [Music] has something gone terribly wrong it is not looking good is it but here well the first thing that I realized is you're looking at the patient halfway through the operation and then before it's been stitched up I think the patient is critical looks of things what I gonna need to explain it a bit then I mean when Rebecca sent me images of this as it was beginning to emerge and I was looking at an area like this around the hand I mean they terrified me when I first saw them because we hadn't removed enough around them for me to gain an impression of anything other than the fact that we were revealing a damaged erect picture we're looking at the hair I mean now they're pretty damaged yes certainly there is a tiny bit of damage in there and you could see it in the lines that running across that's mechanical damage but the really exciting and the important point is as you move your eye down there you can see unfinished areas drawing lines in other words this is an unfinished picture a picture to which the artist perhaps would one day return although I need a lot more paint to be taken off before I get a real understanding of the balance of what's finished it's not looking that right now I'm gonna be honest I know I know you think I'm just putting a brave face on this but for me at least an unfinished picture that shows you the artist's process that gives you a sort of you know glimpse into the mind of a great figure like Van Dyck if it is by Van Dyck it's - my my more interesting and and then really another not only more appealing particularly to a sort of sophisticated 21st century audience who actually likes to know how artists work come on I mean if you have the choice between it being finished and perfect and by Van Dalek or being a you know half half finished first I mean obviously gives the finished version of course you would I'm feeling quite vulnerable I've seen to tell you the truth I mean I'm working with Fiona she's keeping me focused on on the real issues I'm doing my best to persuade her and at the same time I think possibly persuade myself as well but what's different about this is I'm giving people access to a process that's normally very much behind closed doors and if I do get it wrong in a very provable way it doesn't mean it doesn't mean my reputation most good and I and I rather sort of pride myself at least sometimes and getting him right I've never seen Phillip looking so worried the paintings obviously got to him if the painting is unfinished it might explain why our picture was painted over it also makes removing the overpaint much more difficult the restoration process has changed no more solvents is just scalpels and water Joe Gore love has joined Rebecca for this slow difficult work meanwhile Ben doors been working on the provenance of the picture I failed to trace it in the 17th century documents but can he find that vital link to Van Dyke's time I've come to the National art library to see how he's getting on hi Ben door now you have to peel off the back of the picture so this is a dragon here isn't it yes no I think it might be a wiving a wife and a wife as a newer to me well you better learn your heraldry all right get them on there let me give you a crash course to help so what we can do we've got two tiny fragments of the word from the beginning of the motto underneath which has then been torn out so parse it that's not a lot to go on is it no so we've got a general armory which will allow us to look up the mottos parse it for - nan de bourree and these names here and what three families for whom that is their motto exactly so we've already nailed it down - Buchanan lumen and pomp so what we need to do now is find out which one of those three that while the scary-looking bird has their name crest this is Burke's peerage here right never like new Canon Buchanan no this is not it p4 Palmer this is our only chance here we go how extraordinary rather fortunately this coat of arms neighbor was stuck on top of this label of the restorer and now we've only got the fragment of the H to go with do you can just about make out 137 new something straight right well the dealer Smith John Smith is at 137 new Bond Street we're so lucky because from all this fragments we've got just enough information together that is incredible now fortunately for us the firm of John Smith which worked in England throughout the 19th century kept everything in in stock books and notebooks some which we got him ok come on then boys so we got all this class listed major chorded this is bacon right the Reverend F Palmer sold the Reverend F Palmer Oh portrait of her Maria Maria 26th of July yeah we're in 1888 cautious fantastic so we found an owner for our painting a hundred and twenty years ago the Reverend F Palmer and we know who he got it from the question is can we go even further back and find out who Smith the art dealer bought the painting from so in a few years before Palmer abortive we can see if and a picture so we start here in 1884 search as we might our picture isn't recorded here the trail goes cold in 1888 Luke he was looking quite promising from it well listen you've done brilliantly I mean it's such a clever and neat piece of detective work it's now I feel you know we're just so close so to get that bit further back yeah so with no provenance to help link the painting to Van Dyck it's time to go to Philips gallery to see what more the picture itself is revealing this is the picture largely stripped that it certainly has come an incredibly long way when you compare to what it was and you still think it's unfinished yes because Rebecca and Joe have uncovered more of the unfinished hair around the hand you can see the bold brown underdrawing outline around the fingers and you're certainly not just taking too much paint off look I know that's what you think but it's not the case and nor is the case that the picture beneath that we're revealing is destroyed have a look at the hair I mean that's the real telltale to me why because you can see the red drawing lines on the edge this is like looking at a better script down engine this is the first stage of the technical process of putting together a picture that's not damaged and the fact that it's unfinished then is that a good thing or a bad thing I think the fact that it's unfinished is actually quite helpful because we know what we're seeing matches Van Dyke's described technique he used to use this translucent brown umber paint just to draw in the outline of his compositions crucially though if the picture was unfinished it could not have left his studio during his lifetime he would never have licensed that well that's why I wondered if we might find some hint of our picture in Van Dyke's estate his possessions list of pictures he had after he died sounds intriguing can we yes because there's a number of lists recording one Fant I came in the studio after diet and in this one it says the Queen Mary's picture which means Henrietta Maria one of them it says quite interestingly conceived to be an original by Sorrento near Van Dyck valued at 20 pounds and then there's another one again the pen ready Maria valued at four pounds so it's quite an interesting distinction even then between the value of what's thought to be an original and then a workshop copy so which might you'll painting be then the 20-pound original or the four pound copy there's only one way of telling and that's the paintings equality so we might have taken our picture all the way back to Van Dyck studio but frustratingly it's not enough the paintings authenticity will now rest solely on how it looks I want to talk it over with the man in charge as some of Britain's most important paintings he will be drawn on Philips picture but he does have the delicate job of deciding the authenticity of many old masters Nicholas Penney director of the National Gallery he's brought me to see a work by Van Dyke's favorite artist Titian so this is the vendor green family by Titian one of the most famous paintings by Titian in the National Gallery but the one thing that I think has changed at least in my understanding of this painting is it is not in fact entirely partition oh I see so it came to you as a Titian and you've decided to downgrade it a little bit I mean I think it's one of the greatest things he painted but I don't think he painted all of it the children for me a real problem especially the three on the left they're quite awkward those faces aren't they that they're I mean siblings do look alike but it's very unfortunately of all that was terrible chin and it's um it seems to me to be not painted from life and above all I think those three figures really damage the spatial effect now what interests me about this is Van Dyck owned this painting Charles the first wanted to learn this painting it was well the big prizes of the international art market in the first half of the 17th century and for centuries it was just the great family painting by Titian I suppose no one wanted it not to be completed well but I think it's really important for it not to be because it doesn't do hidden justice to think only that those about him so I'm I'm on Titian decide really when I practition and workshop on the label we're looking at a van Dyck and trying to assess whether or not it is actually by Van Dyck no this is the kind that these kinda decisions come to you on a pretty frequent basis what would you need to see to convince you primarily it would be a question of the artists style so when it comes to provenance and science those would be eclipsed by just what it looked like they have to be because this painting is one of the best authenticated petitioners in the world it was described as addition in additions lifetime and we know exactly where it's been every moment since and he always described as addition and yet you say it's not entirely partition so when it comes to Vout this Van Dyck it would come down to connoisseurship in your view and even though with the best in the world conifers do change their minds that's so frustratingly in my eyes that's what it would come down to I think we come down for that I really do yes the end is in sight Joe and Rebecca have been working for four months removing the over paint finally the picture beneath is fully exposed [Music] Wow this is so much better than last time I saw it it's like it's like there's a window in the middle of the canvas and a completely different woman is looking out of it it must have been a hell of a lot of work it's over 500 hours and over a thousand scalpel blades I mean she's she's truly been under the knife what do you think of it now you notice I've lost the ability to look at it critically you know I feel like a mother with her baby I mean I I can't see anything other than beautiful is there much more to do there are still areas of over pain that need to be removed and there's lots of tiny little specks of paint and some tiny little losses which are all taking the eye but at least we can see what we're dealing with now roughly I mean we're looking at it through very misty glass I mean I've never taken on such an ambitious kind of Hagen as this I mean is is so rare in the business first we've got to get the picture back to its original size so I've sent it to be realigned by Lucy and Ray it's a pretty dramatic process which starts with tissue being glued to the front of the picture the old stretcher is removed and the unwanted edges cut off the later canvas layers are scraped from the back to allow a new backing and a stretcher to be added then the painting returns to Rebecca's workshop and the long task of restoring the paint surface begins finally after six months the painting is finished and just in time Henrietta Maria has to look her best for a very important visitor who's coming today Britain's leading expert on Van Dyck so here we are six months on I have to say she's looking pretty good you like her now do you she's the face it was always beautiful and now is even more beautiful I've said absolutely to Lices the way that that face has come together and also other aspects of the picture and it's funny because as your emotions go up and down like a yo-yo during restoration and there were moments I thought oh my god she's not gonna make it you know she's she's not going to be the woman we think she is but I have to say no no I believe she is well we have one of the great independent experts he's gonna be coming along any minute to look at this painting there's so much at stake isn't there I mean how much have you spent first of all on this you were talking it up weren't you burned oh I think we're close on 25,000 pounds so that's what 25,000 pounds of the restoration yeah and and how much did you pay for that just over 7,000 pounds right and also we put on a rather magnificent frame so 32 grand plus rain Osprey if it turns out that this in the view of our independent expert is a van Dyck studio how are you gonna feel about that I mean is that a disaster no I think I'd be satisfied with that and as to value well for a studio work of this quality you know we could be talking two to three hundred thousand pounds and if it's Van Dyck and stood what kind of value would we be talking there I think we could be talking very high hundreds possibly even to the million pound mark and if he says it's not by Van Dyck and not even studio if this is is deemed to be just a copy it's a thumping loss I mean we couldn't get anything like what we paid for it well he's gonna be here any minute so clearly nervous yeah okay I admit it I'm concerned [Music] it all rests on one man director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford Britain's top authority on Van Dyke's English works dr. Christopher Brown he studied the artist for over 30 years curated important exhibitions published some of the definitive books so he's likely to be a very exacting judge Philip and Ben door on our holed up in Philips office with Christopher Brown the independent expert it's such an incredibly sensitive process and Christopher Brown wants to have a look at the painting and familiarize himself with the processes gone through to get this point before he before he tells us what he thinks and Phillip is urbane as always but I know underneath it all he's very nervous yeah there's a lot of Jeopardy here actually I just want wanted to sort of see so I just wanted to find out what the answer is 30 minutes of close consideration later dr. Brown is ready to give us his opinion what are your first impressions of the painting well it's very exciting to see the picture for the first time as I'm doing today since it emerged from the conservation studio and I think the most striking thing for me is the unfinished nature of the picture you can see very clearly where he's outlined the hand and you see again I think very importantly there's a strong black line down the side of the face very characteristic of Van Dyck in the way he worked and what happens then of course is in the final stage of painting he softens that that line and these kind of I mean all those tricks of the trade that is being in that are being employed again this is what of course Van Dyck would have talked to his pupils and his assistants so it doesn't take you to the man himself but it places the picture rather firmly within the studio of Van Dyck I have to say that's very reassuring considering that we bought it as just a copy of the Van Dyck I mean to move it to within the orbit of the great man it's progress the face is something that struck me very strongly Philip and myself do you think this could be by Van Dyck this is very delicate there's no doubt the painting that hair is very delicate very delicate touch of Luke sharing the blood beneath the skin is it's very very close to that Dyke himself the whole thing just the face oh just the face no no this is this does have the characteristics of the studio but that's exactly what you'd expect I mean you wouldn't expect anything different in a picture of this of this Dave 39:40 and the face itself is where you would expect to see the hand of the master himself but I really would like to sit down and place it in the context of other late pictures by Van Dyck I mean to look further into the into the question but I think it has a sporting chance of being by Van Dyck himself the sake of my own clarity as you know the auction houses have this term attributed to meaning they think it might be by a particular artist do you think we could describe this picture now would you be comfortable with us describing this picture and I was attributed to Van Dyke yes I think that's reasonable I think that's a reasonable description because it comes from the studio it is very close to the artist himself and I think further research will clarify whether or not it's by Van Dyck do you like it I do I do I do I like it very much indeed hang happily on the walls of the museum when Philip chooses to donate it it's one of the great dreams of the art world to discover a masterpiece hidden for centuries after that first leap of imagination almost a thousand hours of restoration and some sleepless nights we've revealed not only a beautiful painting but one that came from Van Dyke's studio perhaps from the brush of the master himself well I think that went well and do you know why I'm so pleased you never believed us all along did you well she has had the makeover to end all makeovers but anything is though you both believe that the face is by Van Dyck and he's slightly hedged is best then so is that disappointing no what we've done today I think is a huge advance we've got one of the leading national experts on Van Dyck to say that this is attributed to the man now you can't expect you know immediate responses from people like that when they're suddenly presented with with the evidence and it's so dramatic of form as it as it emerged today as far as I'm concerned this is proper art historical progress and what's more now that we've got this far we have a very exciting place for it to hang here on Whitehall stands the seventeenth-century banqueting house once part of the Great Palace of Whitehall it was Henriette Maria's home and also where her husband Charles the first was executed in 1649 Philip has agreed that the painting will be displayed here where experts and the public and judge it for themselves well what do you think of this henrietta maria coming to hang in the palace where she spent so much time as a queen it's rather like she's come home and of course it's also in great company i mean have you seen that ceiling up there by Rubens one of the great masterpieces of england here where she's hanging and of course Van Dyck was his greatest people so what better place and also the public can see this painting here I mean you'd have thought it when you first set eyes on it all those months ago I don't think there aren't many other pictures out there waiting to be found did you have a painting that deserves investigation contact us at fake or fortune at bbc.co.uk/topgear next on bbc1 opencast mining and water voles on Countryfile in the Gwent levels or on BBC three now action all the way with Nicolas Cage and national treasure Book of Secrets [Music] you

Channel: mightwenotbehappy

Views: 243,346

Rating: 4.833837 out of 5

Keywords: ANTHONY VAN DYCK, PHILLIP MOULD, FIONA BRUCE, ART

Id: GbwKOnOEw74

Length: 58min 57sec (3537 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 23 2018