Two Unknown Paintings Send Art Detectives On Fascinating Journey | Fake Or Fortune? | Perspective

foreign [Music] the art world where paintings change hands for fortunes so thank you very much but for every known Masterpiece there may be another still waiting to be discovered this is it International art dealer Philip mold and I have teamed up to hunt for lost works by great artists we use old-fashioned detective work and state-of-the-art science to get to the truth science can enable us to see beyond the human eye [Music] every case is packed with surprise and Intrigue is it or isn't it afraid then but not every painting is quite what it seems two artists rather than one it's a journey that can end in Joy there is enough to support the conclusion that it is by Tom Roberts or bitter disappointment I don't think it's a work by Gogan I'm very sorry in this episode two very rare portraits offer a glimpse into the lives of black britons in the 18th and 19th centuries there she is in all of her glory not as a slave but as something else it's really important for our history in an era when much of British industry relied on slavery our pictures are exceptional in challenging the racist conventions of the time the fact that we're dealing with fully finished high art work of black subjects it's extraordinarily rare but this is also a double who done it can we identify the artist responsible and solve two separate families Mysteries I just feel this is a riddle and it's it's unfinished business we actually don't have a clue who the artist is do the answers lie somewhere within this stately home it's the same as our two girls could forensic tests reveal an unlikely new suspect and is the evidence enough to convince a skeptical art world [Music] foreign [Music] Fortune often looks at works of art from all corners of the country and today we're in perthshire in Scotland [Music] have you got any Scottish blood if you know you've got the point there can't do your accents again I don't know if I can bear it our first investigation in this episode is taking us to one of Britain's oldest stately homes schoon Palace it has a rich history the grounds of the palace were once home to the stone of schoon the ancient tablet used to enthrone generations of Scottish Kings we're meeting the owner of this magnificent Palace lady Mansfield it's recently been revealed that a painting that's been in her family for over 200 years has been credited to the wrong artist so she's asked us for help schoon Palace has a magnificent collection of art by some of the most accomplished portrait painters to have worked in Britain including Ramsey van Lou and Van dijk but who painted the most famous portrait in the house is a mystery [Music] and we keep the picture in here gosh it's wonderful to see this in the flesh isn't it how beautiful this is a lovely image isn't it yep this is Lady Elizabeth Finch Hatton and her mixed race cousin Dido Bell they are thought to have been painted in the late 1770s or early 1780s a time when Britain was still heavily engaged in the transatlantic slave trade so the way it portrays the girls together is highly unusual so important is so significant in the history of British portraiture a black and white subject shown as equals in a formal setting I mean you wouldn't get an image if a black person white person together like this in Britain at least until what I don't know the 1960s something like that so this was so ahead of its time it's incredibly unusual [Music] Dido Bell Was Born Into Slavery she was the illegitimate daughter of John Lindsay an officer in the Royal Navy her mother was a slave in the British West Indies 4. Dido Bell was brought to Britain by Lindsay and adopted by his uncle William Murray the first Lord Mansfield it was Mansfield himself who commissioned the painting of his two great nieces and for the current lady Mansfield this picture is very special and she's hoping we can help solve its mystery you married into this family absolutely and this picture has become part of your history now yes my Children's History do you love it yes all right I mean we're all incredibly um proud of it if there was a far I would definitely be running into this room and trying to get it off the wall for over a century this picture has been credited to Johann zophany a german-born painter who specialized in both Society portraits and Theatrical subjects but today the art world is convinced that this attribution is not correct it's pretty well confirmed that it's not zophany but we actually don't have a clue who the artist is well I mean the the problem is you you could say the excitement is that there's a huge pool of possibilities this is a great flowering moment in in British portrait painting and that's not the only thing because the inscription says the Lady Elizabeth finchattan there's no mention I've died about at all absolutely well wouldn't it be wonderful if we could not only add Belle's name but the name of an artist on that label as well that would be fantastic this whodunit could help our understanding of the lies of black britons in a turbulent time in our history but before we can start the investigation there's another case we need to take a look at so we're traveling an hour down the road to Edinburgh we've been asked to look at a painting of two black sitters which also challenges the conventions of the time but it's only been in the family for a short while and they know almost nothing about it thank you owners Charlie and Sarah mcquaker have asked us for help to identify the artist who created their painting [Music] thank you this is so striking it's so arresting [Music] I love it it's a beautiful beautiful picture looks to me that this painting dates from the mid-19th century although I can't recall such a high quality work from this period depicting two black sitters with such compassion but the girls aren't named and there's no title so can Charlie give us any early Clues where does it come from I got it from my uncle in France seven or eight years ago when he passed away and it was a picture he always loved and now I've got it it's in our family now why does it appeal to you so much I love the the expression in the girls faces just the the Serenity and the thoughtfulness and just the natural pause it's beautiful I just think the sheer quality of it just draws you in did your uncle tell you what it might represent or who indeed possibly did it no I've got a file of him trying to do some homework and research but there's really nothing much on it at all so I don't even know where he got it we don't know the subject we don't know where they are and we don't know the artist so it is just a huge mystery not too much work for us then the palm trees suggest a tropical landscape like the Caribbean where slavery continued in the British colonies until 1834. so could these girls in fact be slaves but if they are why are they dress in such fine clothes the little girl on the right she's almost trying to communicate something there's something quite assertive about the way she's she's trying to bring us into the picture it's a very Frank gaze isn't it it's like a challenge who am I I need to take a closer look can I spot any early Clues which could help us identify the mystery artist the older figure has her eyes upwards almost like heavenwoods the younger one has her arm on her chest and upon the Elder girl's lab is a book a thick book could be a Bible said is this a painting with some sort of religious meaning and I want to find out if Charlie's Uncle discovered any useful leads which could help us so did your uncle do some research then himself about them he did he found a small signature there's a small signature which is not very clear it's it's hard to read it I can make out an e and then what looks like a j-o-n there seems to be three or four potential versions he wrote to a gentleman called Hugh honor who was a well-known art historian well this is the the response he gave no painter named Etc appears in the largest 37 volume biographical dictionary of artists right okay so that sounds fairly exhaustive the possible forms of the name suggest an Iberian so Spanish and to Josh from the style the picture may be Latin American okay so that's part of a lead to the right of it is another word it's the Latin word Thicket f-e-c-i-t it's a fancy way of saying that it was painted by the person whose name is mentioned next to it and better still there appears to be a date after that now I can make out what I think is a one eight after that I don't know an eight or a three red as a whole it seems to be an e j o n who painted it in 18 something it's a start so in this episode we need to identify the two artists responsible for these rare paintings is an intriguing double who done it so Philip and I are going to split up first I'm going to look into the famous portrait of dido Bell and Lady Elizabeth [Music] to start the investigation I've come to Kenwood House near Hampstead Heath in London [Music] Dido Bell and Lady Elizabeth lived here together with the Mansfield family and it was in these grounds that they were placed by the artist whoever painted our portrait would have probably stood at the very place where I'm standing he or she would have been familiar with everything around me here this wonderful green pastoral setting into which Belle and Elizabeth as friends could sit the the bridge and that wonderful pink lit London in the background there are so few 18th century portraits where you can actually stand and dwell in the place that it was set it's the presence of dido Bell a mixed race girl in an 18th century portrait of the aristocracy which makes this painting so rare and important I'm fascinated by her and I'm not the only one director amerisante made a feature film about her I'm Keen to find out about Belle's life here and why she's become such an important figure in Black British history so Emma what does this painting mean to you well my original interest was to find out who we have been as people of color going back in time and before the wind Rush before that that ship arrived in 1947 and this is one example of that there she is in all of her glory not as a slave not as we're used to seeing people of color often in paintings but as something else so on the one hand it's a symbol and on the other hand it's it's a door it's a question it's a whole set of questions and what have you discovered in the process of making this film about Belle herself I discovered the complexity of her predicament as a privileged woman of color in the 18th century growing up in Kenwood house more wealthy than many white people but not fully equal within our own family and yet clearly very loved while the girls were living here the transatlantic slave trade was at its peak so a friendship like theirs would have been highly unusual the artist captures their close Bond but the props they hold reveal differences in their status within the family Lady Elizabeth has a book signaling she's educated while Dido Bell has a bowl of fruit firmly suggesting that she's seen as an exotic figure she must have understood what her privilege was and at the same time she must have understood that there were many many people who looked like her that were having extremely difficult lives at the time because of um the slave trade and its ramifications and I believe I can run a deep American download v-lean now and while Dido Bell lived here Lord Mansfield became an important figure in the legal debate about slavery he was the country's top judge and in 1783 made a landmark decision against the slave trade Mansfield ruled against the owners of a slave ship the song Captain threw over a hundred slaves into the sea in an attempt to claim compensation perhaps it's not surprising then that he took special care of dido Bell but it would have been far from safe for her to leave Kenwood house on her own the reality of her life was that she had to be protected by her family if she stepped out of the her house alone she could have been captured by slave catchers who wouldn't have thought for a minute about questioning who she was who she belonged to but would have zapped her away in a heartbeat it's very interesting to know that when Lord Mansfield died he left her in his will her Freedom the interesting thing was that she he hadn't left her that prior to his death and I imagine that was probably because she was safer under his protection and belonging to his family than she was simply having free papers but then once once he passed away all he could leave her with really um what were those papers and hope hope that she would be safe after Lord Mansfield died in 1793 daidu Bell left Kenwood house married a Mr davinia and had three children she died in London in 1804 aged 42. were it not for this picture she probably would have been forgotten but it remains one of the earliest positive portrayals of a black person in British art something very free confident and soft and easy about the way she she presents herself and for me that you know sort of finger on her cheek to me says I am here I existed you know and I'm very moved by that after Dido Bell died the painting remained here until 1922 where the Mansfield family sold to the house and moved all their possessions to schoon Palace so in order to search for Clues as to the identity of the artist I need to head back to Scotland meanwhile I'm leading the investigation into Charlie's picture I've arraged to bring the painting to London here there are archives we can research and forensic tests we can carry out but first i'm meeting an expert in Black portraiture can professor Charmaine Nelson from Harvard University helped me get closer to the artist Charmaine this is the first time you've seen the painting what strikes you about initially so first of all to have black sitters be the focal points is quite incredible there's a whole tradition of black in slave subjects being included in high art portraits where white people are at the center of the images in those situations the black enslaved subject is deliberately compositionally peripheral they're on the outskirts of the scene and the portraits are not about them here there's no one else but them so this is extraordinary so this suggests an artist who is doing something quite radical for the time and Charmaine has also spotted some unusual stylistic traits in how the girls have been painted the other thing that's extraordinary is the attempt by the artist to capture the deeply curled texture of African hair a lot of artists in this period straighten the hair to make it look more like European hair also here what's really dramatic and interesting is that there's a book because if we're dealing with a period of transatlantic slavery uh enslaved people we're not allowed to learn to read and write and I'm assuming because of the way she's looking heavenwards this is a Bible that would be my guess too for white Sitters of high art this is a standard Trope of I can read because I'm of a certain status that's the same thing that this artist is bestowing upon this the older female subject here that's extraordinary the details of the hair and book are remarkable given that in 19th century Britain black people were often portrayed as grotesque caricatures but these stereotypes were being challenged by an increasingly popular campaign to abolish slavery our artist is connected to this political movement the fact that these girls are being treated with dignity and respect unlike so many of the caricatures we saw in the early 19th century what do you think is happening here is this a message about the Abolitionist Movement is it simply an attitude happens to find painting black sitters interesting what do you think is happening I think the rendering of the sitters and their intimacy the the use of the book and the implication that the the ones that are at least if not both are literate is a decision on the part of the artist to elicit empathy or sympathy from the viewer you know to actually see them not as objects but as individuals as human beings that to me speaks to an abolitionist tendency if not outright propaganda so this painting is very significant and very rare then absolutely it's a very very powerful important painting this artist clearly had a very radical view of how black people should be portrayed and are this has increasingly becoming a political painting and that of course to me it's really fascinating [Music] back in Scotland I'm on the trail of who painted Dido Bell at schoon Palace the Mansfield family has an extensive archive so I'm Keen to search for evidence here archivist Sarah Adams oversees the family's private papers which date back to the late 1700s when Dido Bell and the painting were at Kenwood house in London she's been looking for any record of the painting Sarah thank you so much for borrowing through the archives now what's the earliest reference to this picture earliest reference we managed to find was 1796. so that was just three years after Lord Mansfield died and that's in an inventory it's listed amongst some items in a room which is called the ground floor that Kenwood we can see the reference to the picture here says Lady Elizabeth and Mrs tevinia okay so so Mrs Divina being David Bill's married name it's her married name because at this point she was married so this is definitely our painting but there's no mention of an artist and why is it without a frame when we look at the other items that are in the room it sounds like a bit of a model there's other pictures there's an old bathtub and then there's some broken musical instruments so it would suggest that at this point just three years after Lord Mansfield died the painting was at Kenwood but it was perhaps in storage it feels almost as though it's been sidelined so it sounds like the painting was no longer on display and with no effort made to attribute the work and later records reveal that even more details about the painting have become lost in the passage of time we can find the painting still at Kenwood in an inventory which was made in 1904 portrait of lady Finch Hatton seated in a garden with an open book and a attendant so at this point they they didn't know who daido was I mean what a chilling thought I mean daily was one of the family in the course of a century she's just lost her identity she just become a sort of add-on a decorative add-on in the picture yeah and then the 1910 inventory she's not mentioned at all it's just described as a portrait of lady Elizabeth no name no name how telling is it that although Lady Elizabeth remained identified Dido Bell had been forgotten but I've also asked Sarah to look into Lord Mansfield's private account books from the late 18th century when he commissioned the painting he record payments to any artists here we go so we can see that in 1776 in October he paid David Martin 200 pounds David Martin the the Scottish Portrait Painter yes [Music] born in 1737 in Fife David Martin was a highly regarded artist popular with the aristocracy he studied under fellows Scott Allen Ramsey and his painting of American politician Benjamin Franklin is on display in the White House sadly Lord Mansfield doesn't record what he paid Martin for so it doesn't time directly to the painting and then a little bit later in 1785 105 pounds was paid to Joshua Reynolds Josh Reynolds the president of the Royal Academy the the Towering figure of 18th century portraiture but again Mansfield doesn't record what he commissioned Joshua Reynolds IV so it doesn't connect him directly to the painting either however Reynolds did paint this unfinished portrait of a black British subject Francis barber in or around 1770. could this have inspired Mansfield to ask Reynolds to paint Dido Bell we now have two prime suspects Joshua Reynolds and David Martin I need now to to narrow this down further to have a look at the stylistic evidence see if I can pin one of these artists to our painting [Music] back in London we sent Charlie's picture to Aviva bernstock head of conservation at The courthold Institute to run some forensic tests [Music] we think the mystery artist was trying to make a political statement about slavery can we find any evidence to back this up we're also Keen to see if the missing letters from the signature and date can be revealed are we looking for a South American or Spanish name as Charlie's Uncle suspected but first Aviva wants to show us something surprising which has appeared under x-ray so this is an x-ray of the painting which I I did um the x-rays are penetrating all the way through the painting it actually tells you the artist has decided to change the composition so this is the artist working out yeah what he or she is doing as they go along yes yeah the one thing that's that's very clear here I think is that the position of this girl's arm has changed so you can see several positions where it was but I think her hands were actually in a v-shape she was either holding a book or perhaps praying at an earlier stage of the composition this is a change in the tea dress worn by the left-hand girl but she and also I think the other girl were at an earlier stage wearing much more up to the neck costumes you can see here there's a costume Which is higher and then later on it was changed to a lower neckline these really nice sort of tea dresses that they're both wearing the changes revealed by the X-ray suggest the artist spent some time considering the style of the dresses the girls wore and the poses they struck given the negative attitudes to black people at the time the care taken with this unusual portrayal strengthens our theory that it could be connected to the anti-slavery movement and I also want to see what Aviva discovered when she put this signature and date under ultraviolet light okay so this is an uh ultraviolet fluorescent image of the whole painting the most exciting thing of course is the inscription which we can read much more clearly [Music] okay so now I think you can see very clearly Charlie can you read that because I can if anything it looks like e Jones yeah e Jones and then this is this is this fake it yeah it looks like it's I read it as e Jones feket and then there's a date which is very clearly 1831. whoa [Music] it's interesting there's Jones because Jason that it was could have been jokes Latin American yes it might just be Jones it's a fantastic Bridge isn't it I mean that's absolutely great it's been staring Us in the face the whole time great work Aviva thank you pleasure well I think we've just had quite a breakthrough we can forget all those strange John yes hanyas I'm not even sure how to pronounce them it's just plain old Jones the artist is e Jones so now we need to find out who that is [Music] back at school and Palace we're now looking at the two prime suspects Joshua Reynolds and David Martin we've found evidence that they were working for Lord Mansfield at the time he commissioned the portrait of his great nieces Dido Bell and Lady Elizabeth there are several of their works here so can I spot any with stylistic similarities I'm starting in the dining room where I find Joshua reynolds's magnificent portrait of Lord Mansfield himself Reynolds was in love with classical art often with his portraits there's a craggy statuesque quality like sculpture that's that's come to life and one of the things that characterizes his work is the is the intelligence with which he portrayed his subjects this is a lawmaker this is a band with compassion as well I mean it's highly sophisticated one of his nicknames was cesploshua because of the violent expression of brush Strokes that he was quite capable of with a big brush and if you look at that cuff of the judge's cloak you can see a whirlwind of activity you know the movement of The Strokes now our picture is good but does it quite have that degree of complexity I would argue probably not stylistically and in terms of the approach to the subject I don't think Reynolds is our man I now need to see a work by David Martin there are several of his paintings on display to the public here there's one in particular I'm Keen to examine but it's kept in the Mansfield's private quarters in the family's drawing room this is Lady Marjorie painted by David Martin in the 1760s I want to show lady Mansfield what I think could be some promising Clues [Music] this would be dull I think probably 10 years before Dido and Elizabeth but there are characteristics which I think one can see with your two girls that's so interesting now what about the flowers in the hair absolutely spot on flowers in the head well I mean yes of course Marjorie might have like flowers but equally portrait painters I find will sometimes impose their own ideas as to how someone should look and I think that's what we're dealing with here and flowers in the air lovely bit of color catching the light or something that clearly David Martin enjoys I definitely buy into that theory now what about the clothes that Indian sort of ghouls is in the other picture it is isn't it with that with that beautiful gold embroidery you see one of Martin's party tricks was to allow one color to shine through another not everyone could pull that one off I think any opportunity to use it and he's done it with Marjorie and why shouldn't he be doing it with your double portrait [Music] I'm also struck by the way Martin has composed his female subjects both lady Marjorie and Lady Elizabeth have been painted with bright red ruby lips almost luminous and the heads of all three women have an elongated lozen shape to them and most obvious of all is the finger raised to the face a gesture struck by both lady Marjorie and Dido Bell gosh why didn't I notice that before why haven't all these years I hadn't even clicked that the Fabrics were so similar and on the hand and in fact she's wearing pearls too and big ones just like Dido well next we need to take this further with forensics and see if it's the same hand in both pictures we've always wanted to know who painted Dido and Elizabeth if we could find out it would be a family goal meanwhile forensic tests have revealed a signature and date on Charlie's painting but just who is the mysterious e Jones [Music] back in London we're keen to find out so Charlie and I are on our way to the Royal Academy Britain's oldest Art School established in 1769. Mark Pomeroy oversees their unique archive which lists every artist who has ever exhibited here so we've asked him for help foreign if you've got anything about an artist e Jones the first place we could try is an index to the summer exhibitions of the Royal Academy if e Jones had any involvement with the Royal Academy this is where it's going to be right and hopefully there aren't too many Egypt well 250 years all right okay so okay James E well that's easy architect so let's assume it's not that one there are eight artists named e Jones who've exhibited at the Royal Academy but we can rule some out immediately they were either working in the wrong discipline or the wrong period so let's narrow it down we've got Jones Miss e 1833 4 of The King's theater but Jones Miss Emma looks much more promising yeah I would say 1832 girl going to Market 1833 Williams dog 1834 childhood these are the kind of paintings portraits genre painting telling a story like yours on the right time [Music] unfortunately there's nothing here that sounds like it could be Charlie's painting but can Mark shed any more light on Emma Jones this is a dictionary of artists published in 1874 so if we go to the Joneses Jones Emma um as it obviously is born in London 1813 she's reputed to have drawn likenesses with great Fidelity before the age of 13 years she painted portraits and groups of children sounds right so this biography reveals Emma Jones was born in London in 1813 which means she would have been just 18 if she painted Charlie's picture and we now know she married and became madame soyi it's so unusual to find a woman working from such a young age and exhibiting at the Royal Academy when the art world in the 19th century was dominated by men when I saw the name e Jones on Charlie's painting it never occurred to me we might be looking at a female artist because that's pretty rare but I think she's looking very promising [Music] back in Scotland at schoon Palace we've called in specialist conservators from the University of northumbria we're searching for scientific evidence to connect David Martin to the picture of dido Bell and Lady Elizabeth the forensic experts are taking minute paint samples from both portraits lady Marjorie and Dido Bell and Lady Elizabeth they are also using an xrf spectrometer to send x-rays to identify any common elements in the paintings they'll be looking for any chemical link between the portraits foreign they need to process the results of their lab in Newcastle so I'm heading back to London to catch up with Fiona who has some news about Charlie's painting I think I found arcader this is Emma Jones this is a self-portrait which is rather beautiful isn't it it was highly accomplished I mean the the technique in the face that stippling is like a really professional miniaturist well she was a child prodigy so she exhibited at the Royal Academy which as a woman was hard enough but her first painting was hung there when she was 10 10 years old how did she Foster this prodigious talent that she had her stepfather was a Belgian artist well in an artist called Francois simono so one assumes that she learned under his tutelage she got it firsthand she did she went to paint the portrait of a celebrity chef at the time a Frenchman called Alexis Sawyer he saw her they fell in love and they married this is Alexis Sawyer's Beast of a kitchen I just love this picture Factory isn't it I mean look at the dude that all these people are rushing around he was famous in London at the time he produced cookbooks bottled sauces here he is showing people around his kitchen now look in this corner here this kitchen what do you see I food and art not just any art these are Emma's paintings Alexis was known for proudly displaying her work in his kitchen I don't think I can see ours but there's some similar looking things so where was this this was just over the road at the reform Club oh don't be ridiculous just there right under your nose all the time all the time what I need to do is find out whether the club still has any of the works there I'd love to be able to get to grips with her style and compare it to ours well the reform Club is one of London's most prestigious clubs it has a dress code and this will not cut the muscle I'm afraid what did you take before I'm an art dealer I have the clothes suited and booted and hopefully up to Fiona's standards I've arranged a visit to the reform Club [Music] established in 1836 this Grand Club for private members was set up as an exclusive preserve for well-connected and politically liberal Elite gentleman the club have confirmed that they do still have one original work by Emma Jones and perhaps unsurprisingly it's a painting she composed of her husband in 1841 the club's first ever chef spot any stylistic similarities to Charlie's painting so here is Alexis Sawyer looking I have to say every inch like what he is the celebrity chef in fact he's pointing to his signature dish breaded lamb cutlets which apparently is still on the menu today although they don't look hugely edible to me when you get up close there's something very thick and Rich about the handling of the paint this is not transparent and glazy this is quite built up the hands also quite robustly painted I I get a sort of memory of something rather similar with our two girls in in that setting I've also noticed that the painting has rather unusual measurements it's 36 times 28 inches I don't need to measure it it's called the KitKat portrait it's something that was developed in the early 18th century it allowed a face and hands a little bit else going on and it was bigger than just your normal bust portrait which is 30 25. now by the mid 19th century although it was used a little bit by some artists this was becoming old-fashioned so it's something that's quite noticeable about this painting and it's the same as our two girls Emma Jones married Alexis in 1837 and so has signed her name sire on this portrait she's retained a distinctive trait which is also on Charlie's painting Emma Sawyer feket 1841 ficket this is the same term that is used this slightly anachronistic old-fashioned term used a lot in the 18th century that we've got in our two goals feket he or she made it this is a quirk a quirk that we see in both works [Music] I've discovered that many of Emma's paintings include children just like Charlie's picture but she didn't name the subjects like this scene titled an old woman and spinning wheel this means it might be impossible to identify the girls in Charlie's picture but I've also noticed that Emma seemed to favor intimate and sympathetic portrayals of those on the margins of Victorian society so could she also have been a supporter of Britain's anti-slavery movement in 1831 the date the picture was painted the Abolitionist campaign was at its peak and its most vocal and radical supporters in Britain were women who formed their own societies calling for the immediate end to slavery the search for evidence of a connection to these political groups Charlie and I are heading to King's College London historian Dr imrubong umaren he's been looking through the University's archive that holds records detailing the activities of women's anti-slavery societies can she help us link Emma Jones to the campaign to end slavery when I first saw the painting on your wall I thought we've got these two black girls nicely dressed with the book which we assume is the Bible why they dress so finely why they're reading a book why is one of the girls looking heavenward as a sign of her faith can you shed on that I think that really links into a really interesting organization called the lady Society for promoting The Early Education of the children of the Negroes and this group's main goal was to spread Christianity in the Caribbean but also to really promote and improve the education of enslaved children now they did this through sending clothes money books in 1831 there's a report that talks about the kind of impact of clothes of books that I think really do pick up on some of the themes in the painting that we have and it notes for instance the children's clothing and appearance had improved as a result of European sending clothes to the Caribbean to have witnessed their orderly Behavior neat civilized appearance and intelligent faces would have gratified their kind friends in Europe later on the report notes the children were continually asking for more and more books and I think the image itself the children the books the ways in which they're so beautifully dressed is a reflection of what's going on in this report [Music] fascinating isn't it I mean so at that particular time it wouldn't have been completely extraordinary for children to be wearing such fine dresses or have books or would be no described as aid supplies do we know if Emma Jones was involved directly in these groups fortunately we don't we don't know directly if she was involved but given her own um experience of painting disenfranchised subjects we can imagine that she attended perhaps that means organization's events she had friends with people who also were directly linked to organizations such as this I think that may have influenced her decision to paint the beautiful picture that she did so that answers a few questions then doesn't it completely this is just so brilliant isn't it it really does there are also so many layers to it that's so interesting thank you so much I think that feels like a breakthrough completely that's fascinating this report was published in London in 1831 the very same year of Charlie's painting so it seems that this is the most likely explanation for our picture an abolitionist work inspired by a campaign run by British women to send clothes and books to slaves in Britain's colonies just two years later in 1833 Parliament finally passed an act abolishing slavery in the British Empire but tragically less than a decade later in 1842 Emma Jones died in childbirth she was just 29. after her death her husband Alexis Sawyer organized a charity exhibition of her works with the proceeds going to help London's poor it was a fitting tribute for a remarkable Young artist meanwhile the results from the tests from schoon Palace have been processed at the University of northumbria in Newcastle so lady Mansfield and I run away to find out if science could connect David Martin to one of the earliest and most important paintings of a black subject in British art this could be a significant breakthrough Martin is a leading figure in Scottish portraiture and some of his works are held in the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh but will my hunch about Martin be backed up by the forensics to find out we're meeting Dr Kate Nicholson it's okay have you found anything that can give us comfort that they might be by the same artist well we've done some comparisons and we're looking at a white sample taken from Lady Marjorie which we know is by David Martin and what the particular chemical makeup of it is so we can see that the white pigment he used was lead White and we can see a mixture of binding oils that are used to mix the paint okay so there's binding oil is is is is what what holds the pigment together and makes it into a paint the pigment you would just buy is a powder if we look at the sample taken from Elizabeth and Bell it mirrors perfectly that's extraordinary it's like a copy you know you could just it's absolutely extraordinary if we look at the makeup of The Binding oil itself we can see the ratio used in both of these paintings is the same so it's the same gravy as it were same gravy stem Sauce mix that's exciting the white paint used on both paintings is an exact match but what are the tests revealed about those distinctive red lips I spotted on Lady Elizabeth and Lady Marjorie we see this particular graph shows a steep rise and that says and Lady marjorie's lips the pigment used was Vermillion Pale Lady Marjorie to Lady Elizabeth not only do we say it's Vermillion but if we do further analysis we see even down to the trace elements the two are a match I mean the chances of those big different artists is pretty remote let's face it it's very slim so if that's a match yeah it's extraordinary I mean it's absolutely extraordinary I mean there it all is in front of our eyes so the forensic results back up our theory that David Martin composed this painting but to secure a new official attribution we'll have to convince the art authorities who will need to view all our evidence back at screen Palace but first Philip and I have returned to Edinburgh because I think I've made an important discovery about Charlie's painting all the evidence so far has pointed to Emma Jones being our artist from the signature to the stylistic similarities with her other work and now we're here to share the final Revelation with owners Charlie and Sarah as you know we think your painting is by the artist Emma Jones she married the celebrity chef Alexis Sawyer he died in 1858. and after his death there was a sale of paintings and I believe there I found your painting oh wow so let me show you and here at number 96. two negro children with a book that's incredible now the title clearly in our times is a very unattractive one that's not a word we use anymore but in those days in Victoria's society that wasn't where they use freely this I believe is your painting and what I'm delighted to say is that we can add to that because the National Portrait Gather in London has kindly furnished us with a letter [Music] this letter is a confirmation that they believe after consideration that this is by Emma Jones I can't tell you how helpful that is that's fantastic certificate of authenticity gosh wonderful this is this is so exciting really because you've now got a fully attributed picture its value I can easily see it being worth 60 000 pounds probably more gosh wow but let's just think what you have got I mean there are so many collections out there Museum collections in this country and abroad who would love a painting that this represents this is a double whammy it's a female artist which is rare and it's a subject matter that we badly need in order to balance the the social history content of collections I have to say for me I found this is one of the most fascinating Journeys I've been on in fake or Fortune what I wanted to do was find out who the children are that's where I've fallen short because when you look at all the other paintings here head of a child head of a gentleman two children with rabbits she didn't name but even though we don't know who these two girls are what their names are we have a sense now of the kind of lives they would have been living the context in which they were living and the message that Emma Jones was trying to get across I find that power of the female voice with the Abolitionist Movement you know pre the suffragette movement I find that really really interesting it's been a fascinating process and I think you've done tremendously well too to find a site we couldn't have done it on our own [Music] but we still need to solve the mystery of who painted Dido Bell and Lady Elizabeth so we're on our way back to schoon Palace the leading Scottish artist David Martin has emerged as our Prime Suspect the case has become more than an intriguing family mystery because of the story of dido Bell a former slave who became a member of an aristocratic family the painting is now a work of national importance what agitates me about this picture is that it's so high profile and therefore the stakes are so much higher and as we know the art world can be so tough to convince today we'll find out if we've done enough we presented our evidence to Dr Brian Allen an expert in 18th century British portraiture he has agreed to deliver an official verdict but is our case compelling enough Brian it's the Moment of Truth you've seen our dossier you've considered our evidence what's your verdict on the painting well I'm entirely convinced that this is by David Martin this seems entirely consistent with all elements of his style and I I feel really confident that we can say that without doubt well that's terrific what do you think it's excellent and I know the family will be absolutely thrilled that we've found an artist at last and this is a picture you've always loved isn't it lady Mansfield but there's always been this mystery about it absolutely um it's my favorite it's my favorite in the collection and it's marvelous now that we've solved for the mystery so the mystery is resolved thank you very much what was it about the painting that community in particular in particular for me it's the way he paints silks and Saturns and Muslims it has a particular style that he learned at the feet of his teacher Alan Ramsey the Great Scottish 18th Century painter and we can see the Hallmark of his period of learning with Ramsay in this picture now that we know that this is definitely by David Martin how does that affect the value as you say it's enormously helpful to have a name there are so many institutions worldwide and and in this country who would love a painting like this I mean this is a groundbreaker this is sociologically so significant and it's also a picture that delivers visually it's a beautiful image yes it is beautiful I mean I can see it being worth 600 000 pounds probably more so what are your plans then lady Mansfield um to keep it here to keep it here at the palace it's a family heirloom you know we're very rarely proud of it it will be a lovely story to tell our visitors from all around the world and we can show them some of the other David Martins we have here at the collection and um it's here to stay and it's such an intimate tender painting I think when you think about the love that old man Phil must have had to commission it and now it now has a very different message I think it is a message about two young girls admission about equality as well as Lord Mansfield's private feelings about his two great nieces it's transformed I think yes totally [Music] oh and now a new pluck can be made correctly attributing David Martin and also restoring Dido Belle's name [Music] so we sold this intriguing double who done it but these investigations have become more than that they've transported us into the extraordinary lives of black britons the difficult chapter in our history [Music] really these paintings show Britain at a Crossroads slamey was dividing the nation and these pictures are radical and for me they represent hope with intimate depictions of black britons and we've identified the two artists the two British painters who made these remarkable images happen we've given them back their status and now surely they can be properly appreciated for the wonderful images that they are [Music] [Music] thank you

Channel: Perspective

Views: 695,074

Keywords: history documentaries, art history documentaries, art and culture documentary, TV Shows - Topic, art history, Documentary movies - topic, tv shows - topic, fake or fortune, dido, dido belle, slave trade art, slave art, 18th centry art, british art, season 7, series 7, episode 4, full episodes

Id: 9wgeqEtGnuE

Length: 57min 58sec (3478 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 25 2023