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Bigfoot USA
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00:01Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
00:05I'm already in the States for another project,
00:08but I'm making time for an early morning visit to see a painting.
00:14We've been contacted by an American couple
00:17who purchased a striking portrait for a few hundred dollars.
00:22And it has all the hallmarks of one of the great 18th century artists,
00:27Angelica Kaufman.
00:29You'd expect to find her work in the world's top galleries,
00:33not a family home in Pittsburgh.
00:37Hi there.
00:38Laura, nice to meet you.
00:39Hi, I'm Fiona. I've come to see your picture.
00:42Tucked out of sight and a little unloved.
00:45So here it is.
00:47What's it doing in a cupboard?
00:50Gosh, that is really rather lovely, isn't it?
00:54Could this be a long-lost masterpiece missing for over a year?
00:57We're on the hunt for lost treasure.
01:01That is massively encouraging.
01:04International art dealer Philip Mould and I have teamed up to investigate mysterious works of art.
01:11I don't believe it.
01:12But are they worthless fakes?
01:13Someone has to put a signature on top dastardly.
01:16Or missing masterpieces?
01:18This is indeed a work by Helen McNichol.
01:21Worth a fortune.
01:22At 42 million.
01:23Sold.
01:24Thank you very much.
01:25In Pittsburgh, I'm finding out more from Laura and Pat about their beautiful picture.
01:42Well, this is a really tender image, isn't it, of a young woman with her arms around an urn.
01:49Where did you get it from?
01:50There was an estate sale here in Pittsburgh that was online and it was an antique dealer that had been in the Pittsburgh area for about 40 years.
01:57She had some really nice pieces and if I could get any of them that I was gonna go ahead and bid on them.
02:01And Pat, do you like it?
02:03I'd love to know more about it but, you know, I don't know if I'd want it on the wall.
02:08I'm hurt for the picture.
02:10I think it's a lovely picture.
02:12There are some wonderful details.
02:15The flowers woven into the hair.
02:18The delicately draped blue ribbon.
02:21The elegant hands.
02:26And what did you pay for it?
02:27About 200 US dollars, so less than 200 pounds.
02:34Yeah, quite a bit less than 200 pounds.
02:35So, what do you know about it and the artist?
02:37Just really doing some research on the image itself.
02:41I found a reverse image of it in an engraving and found out that it could be by Angelica Kaufmann.
02:50Born in Switzerland in 1741, Kaufmann was recognised as a child prodigy.
02:57And was already famous before she moved to England in 1766.
03:02For 15 years she painted in London, becoming one of only two female founder members of the Royal Academy of Arts.
03:11She was celebrated for her history paintings, inspired by ancient Greece and Rome.
03:17And many of her pictures were reproduced in the form of popular prints and engravings.
03:26Today, the surge in interest in works by women artists such as Kaufmann has had a dramatic impact on their value.
03:34From the photos I've received, I'm struck by the potential of Laura and Pat's painting.
03:42Whereas, a number of years ago, this might have been worth perhaps 20,000 pounds.
03:48Now, it may be worth three times that.
03:53If it's genuine and in good condition.
03:59I've had a chat to Philip about what this picture could be worth, if indeed it is by Angelica Kaufmann.
04:04So, he thinks up to 60,000 pounds, which is just over $78,000.
04:11Quite a lot more than the $200 I paid for it.
04:14Wow.
04:15Do you think you might like it a bit more now, Pat?
04:16Yeah.
04:17Well...
04:19Well, look, you don't want to hang it on your wall at the moment.
04:20You've stuck it in the closet of shame for the last four years.
04:24Even with it hidden away for all that time, Laura has been studying the painting closely.
04:30It was something I didn't even originally see in the painting when I saw it,
04:34but in the right corner there is a poem as well painted into it.
04:39Oh, yes.
04:41I mean, I couldn't read it, but I can see there's writing there.
04:45The composition of the painting is strikingly similar to the print Laura found,
04:49which led her to the name Angelica Kaufmann.
04:54Here it is.
04:55So, you've found this, you've done your own research on it,
04:58and it's memory of General Stanwix's daughter,
05:03who was lost in her passage from Ireland.
05:06This is clearly a mourning picture.
05:10Like the painting, the print features a poem,
05:13a haunting elegy to a girl lost at sea.
05:19On the dark bosom of the faithless Maine,
05:22where stormy winds and howling tempests reign,
05:25far from her native fields and friendly skies,
05:29in early death's cold arms, Fidelia lies.
05:37To have the same poem appearing on both a print and a painting seems quite unusual.
05:43What does it mean for Laura and Pat's picture?
05:45Back in London, I have begun by delving deeper into all the research that has been done on Kaufmann, the artist.
05:58Looking into the way Angelica Kaufmann worked,
06:02she often did etchings of her own pictures or used professional engravers.
06:08Wherever there's a print, there is also an original painting.
06:11I found a biography of Kaufmann from 1893 that contains a list of her prints.
06:20And one of them sounds very familiar.
06:24Item 68, General Stanwix's daughter.
06:27A memorial picture, very popular in its day, being largely engraved.
06:31There were six lines of poetry at the foot of the engraving.
06:36The German biographers of Angelica allude constantly to this picture as one of her best paintings.
06:43So far, no trace seems to exist of such a painting.
06:47So now, the tantalising thought presents itself.
06:54Hath Pat and Laura stumbled across a lost treasure?
06:59A missing Kaufmann masterpiece for $200? That would be something.
07:08Have you consulted anyone about this picture?
07:11Well, we've sent pictures to some experts and they were very positive about it.
07:15But that was a couple of years ago and we haven't really heard anything since.
07:18Right, so the trail's gone cold.
07:20Yes.
07:21If it does turn out to be by Angelica Kaufmann, what do you think you'll do with it?
07:25We'd probably want to sell it.
07:26Yeah?
07:27Yeah.
07:28Laura?
07:29Yeah, I think it deserves to be hung somewhere if it is a painting with that significant of a history.
07:36So we'd love to see it somewhere where other people can enjoy it and not in our closet.
07:41It definitely deserves to come out there.
07:44Right, well, I better get cracking.
07:46There's a lot of work to do on this picture and let's hope it is by Angelica Kaufmann.
07:51Sounds good.
07:56While Fiona continues her research in Pittsburgh, I'm heading to the Royal Academy of Arts in the heart of London
08:04to get to grips with Angelica Kaufmann as a painter.
08:07It's a testament to her reputation at the time that when the Royal Academy was set up in 1768,
08:15just two years after Kaufmann arrived in London,
08:19she was included in its membership.
08:22This is such a revealing image.
08:26It's a print of a painting done in 1768 by Johann Zoffany of the founding members of the Royal Academy.
08:34They're all gathered together in a room.
08:38It's a club and what you have is all of them standing, jostling together,
08:45a sort of maelstrom of activity with a male model on the right-hand side.
08:51So where, I may hear you ask, is Angelica Kaufmann because she was a founding member of the Royal Academy,
08:58together with another artist, Mary Moser.
09:03Well, you can look long and hard.
09:07They're not to be found.
09:09Instead, you have to move your eye up to two unframed oil paintings of women.
09:17One of them, Mary Moser, and the other, Angelica Kaufmann, the founding members of the Royal Academy,
09:25who are not allowed to be included in this composition.
09:29Now, that's partly because a male model is present,
09:34but just look how they have been marginalised.
09:37This might explain why Kaufmann had such a distinctive take on history painting.
09:44She often used herself or her friends as models
09:48in scenes that focused on strong female figures from classical mythology.
09:52This picture from 1793, Ulysses on the island of Circe, is a prime example.
10:05This is exactly the sort of picture that we associate with the great Angelica Kaufmann.
10:12It's also one of the paintings by which she herself wished to be remembered.
10:17And like so many of her works, what she's done is gone back to mythology
10:24and found a narrative, a story, in which a woman is playing a leading part.
10:33On the left, lifting her veil, is Circe, the sorceress, the enchantress.
10:39And she's looking towards Ulysses, whose men have just been turned into pigs.
10:44Look at the figures. It's almost, almost as if they're sculptures that have slightly come to life.
10:51Notice the expressions.
10:53They're not emotional. They're calm, almost stone-like.
10:57This is the sort of composition that you might have found on the frieze of a Roman or Greek temple.
11:04So does this genuine work bear any similarities to Laura's picture?
11:09One thing I think is really worth looking at is that kneeling figure in the bottom right-hand corner.
11:18Look particularly at the hair.
11:21Do you think we can see some of that lovely delineated detail in Laura's?
11:27I really need to see the painting in person, which means we have to bring it over from Pennsylvania.
11:40Back in Pittsburgh, I'm trying to find out as much as I can about Laura's picture.
11:44It certainly looks like the engraving, there's no doubt about that.
11:50The question is, is it the lost work by Angelica Kaufmann, the original, or is it just a copy?
11:57Either way, there's nothing so straightforward as a signature.
12:01What I can't work out is how a work by an artist from the 18th century, who spent much of her time in Britain and in Italy, could end up in an auction in Pittsburgh, of all places.
12:14There are some clues on the back of the painting that could help.
12:20A label with a Pittsburgh address.
12:25And there's a name.
12:27Number one, Mrs. J.B. Loughlin.
12:31Who is she?
12:33I'm keen to see what I can find out online.
12:37And a search of the historic Pittsburgh website shows that Loughlin was an important local name.
12:43The Jones and Loughlin Steel Corporation was one of the largest iron and steel manufacturers in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries.
12:54So I'm wondering if this Mrs. Loughlin is part of this Loughlin family.
12:58Maybe she was the wife of this industrial titan.
13:05It looks like the initials J.B. stand for James Ben Loughlin, whose grandfather founded the Jones and Loughlin Steel Corporation.
13:15The family fortune was worth millions.
13:18His wife, Clara Young Loughlin, outlived her husband by 27 years, which could be why it's her name on the back of the painting.
13:26So I'm going to put in J.B. Loughlin Kaufman.
13:33I'm hoping for answers from a valuable resource.
13:39The online database of the Frick Collection, a prestigious museum in New York.
13:44It has a comprehensive directory of American art collectors.
13:51Aha! J.B. Loughlin collected modern paintings.
13:56His collection included work by Ziem Wyant Murphy and a portrait of Mrs. Hunter by Angelica Kaufman.
14:04Wow! Well, that's encouraging.
14:07It seems we can add some important names to the provenance of Loughlin's picture.
14:16Industrialist and art collector J.B. Loughlin and his wife, Clara.
14:21But we've also got a new title.
14:25Mrs. Hunter.
14:27So I'm wondering now, is the woman in Loughlin's picture this Mrs. Hunter?
14:33Is her picture the one referred to here?
14:36Back in London, I'm digging further into the painting's history, trying to discover how it ended up in the United States.
14:52In the early 20th century, Pittsburgh was booming, a bustling metropolis awash with wealth from the steel industry.
14:59Sons of the city, like J.B. Loughlin, had made their fortunes and could now afford to be lavish.
15:08I've come across a fascinating article from 1921 about a special Christmas gift from an unnamed father to his daughter.
15:18And the headline reads, Pittsburgh girl to discover famous painting in stocking.
15:25And the article describes a portrait of Mrs. Hunter.
15:34Better still, though, if you get into the body of the article, it describes the composition.
15:41A woman beside an urn.
15:44Well, that seems to me like a decent description of Laura's painting.
15:50So perhaps Mrs. Hunter, described as a poet, posed as a model for this composition.
15:59There's more interesting information in this article.
16:04It describes the picture as being sold by the Gillespie Gallery.
16:09Unbelievably, the Gillespie Gallery is still going.
16:11In fact, on its website, it describes itself as the oldest commercial gallery in America.
16:19But the link between Gillespie and Laura's picture is stronger still, because turn over the painting.
16:27If you see this label here, or rather the remnants of a label.
16:30The fragment on the back of Laura's picture shows a Pittsburgh address and the words Fine Art Galleries.
16:39And with further research, we found an intact version of the same label that reveals the words missing from the top.
16:48The name of the gallery, JJ Gillespie & Co.
16:51Since the firm is still in business, we've approached them for more information.
17:01Armed with Philip's research, I've asked Laura to meet me at the original site of the Gillespie Gallery in Pittsburgh.
17:07Do you remember the labels on the back of your picture?
17:12There was one in particular, it was only partially there and it had an address and it said Fine Arts on it.
17:17Well, having looked into that, that's the label of an art gallery called John Jones Gillespie.
17:23And that opened here in Pittsburgh in 1832.
17:27The address you can see on that label, which is 422 Wood Street, which is where we are now, is now a dance studio.
17:31And in fact, it's passed through a few hands, John Jones Gillespie, and now it's located outside Pittsburgh.
17:37But we wanted to know, did they have any record of your picture?
17:41It turns out, they do.
17:43Starts to tie everything together.
17:45It does.
17:47In November 1921, the gallery sold a portrait of Mrs. Hunter by Angelica Kaufman to J.B. Lachlan for $3,000.
17:56A vast sum at the time.
18:00And I have here a picture of J.B. Lachlan.
18:03OK.
18:05So he was an industrialist in the steel industry.
18:08A hugely wealthy man he would have been in 1921.
18:11And this is the man that bought your picture.
18:14Pretty interesting.
18:16Stick a beard on him, he could be Pat.
18:18There we go.
18:20Now, we're still kind of wondering, how did this picture get here?
18:22Right.
18:23So I need to go back.
18:25OK.
18:26And trace it back further than 1921 and see if I can get to the brush of Kaufman.
18:32OK, fingers crossed.
18:33All right, fingers crossed.
18:37We now know that Laura's painting has been in Pittsburgh for more than a century.
18:41And I'm keen to understand what might have brought it here in the first place.
18:44The poem painted on the picture and reproduced in the print states that it is dedicated to the memory of General Stanwix's daughter.
18:54But who was General Stanwix?
18:59I've come to the Fort Pitt Museum to meet curator Michael Burke.
19:04Fiona, so nice to meet you.
19:05Nice to meet you.
19:06Welcome to Fort Pitt.
19:08The museum is constructed on the site of Fort Pitt, an 18th century stronghold built by British forces when America was still a British colony.
19:22It's amazing to think that Pittsburgh, with all its skyscrapers, started out like this.
19:26Yeah.
19:28The painting that we're looking at, let me show you.
19:30I've got it here.
19:31And it's in memory of the daughter of a man called General Stanwix, or Stanix.
19:36General John Stanwix was a very consequential figure here in early Pittsburgh.
19:39He's actually a major general in the British Army who's sent here to oversee the construction of Fort Pitt.
19:46So he's a hugely important man when it comes to the history of Pittsburgh.
19:49Yeah.
19:50The inscription on the painting says that General Stanix's daughter was lost on the passage from Ireland.
19:54Can you shed any light on that?
19:56After he left Pittsburgh, he goes back to England, and eventually he's in charge of overseeing troops in Ireland.
20:03And his family was traveling back in 1766, and the ship that they were on was called the Eagle.
20:09And shortly after they left Ireland, the ship began to take on water.
20:14And several hours later, it went down with Stanwix, his daughter, his wife, and several other people.
20:19Oh, so it wasn't just the daughter. It was Stanix and his whole family.
20:22Correct.
20:23Tragic.
20:24Yes.
20:28It seems typical of Kaufman that she chose to commemorate not the famous general, but his unmarried daughter, Susanna Stanwix.
20:38Fast forward to the mid-19th century, there's quite a lot of wealth being generated in Pittsburgh because of the iron and steel industries.
20:45And some of these wealthy industrialists want to invest their money in different ways, and so they start to collect art.
20:52And if it's art that has a connection to Pittsburgh, I think they're more inclined even to bring it into their collections.
20:57So although the painting was sold in Pittsburgh as a portrait of Mrs. Hunter, it's the Stanwix connection that made it a prize.
21:07Before I came here, I just couldn't work out why a portrait like this would end up in Pittsburgh.
21:13But now it's all beginning to make sense.
21:15In 1759, Major General Stanwix was creating what would become Pittsburgh as we see it today.
21:24He was a pivotal figure here.
21:26And the painting, although it's in memory of his daughter, is a strong connection to the man himself and the tragedy that befell not only his daughter but the whole family.
21:38So I can completely see why a son of Pittsburgh, a wealthy industrialist, would want a painting like this.
21:48Laura's picture has now arrived safely in the UK, and I'm keen to take a closer look.
21:56We've arranged for it to be delivered to the Hamilton Car Institute in Cambridge, a leading centre for the study and conservation of paintings.
22:06Once it's been carefully unpacked, I'll be able to see what I'm dealing with.
22:15There's some really, really beautiful parts to this picture.
22:19I've found I'm drawn towards this beckoning hand in the bottom right-hand corner.
22:28It's beautifully modelled.
22:30You can feel the shape of the fingers, the slight shadow that separates them.
22:34I love the tips and the nails, and the foreshortening of the thumb as it comes towards you.
22:41This is masterfully done.
22:43It's certain, it's quite rich.
22:46It's, it's subtle.
22:49And the flowers, delicate, well observed.
22:53You know, this is a good hand at work.
22:56But unfortunately, it looks like this picture has had a chequered past.
23:01As your eye starts to cross the painting, you pass some troubled areas, some problem areas.
23:10It's a little bit raw.
23:11You can see the weave of the canvas, not something you really want to with a painting like this.
23:18You would just hope for the sort of soft sweep of a paintbrush there.
23:21There are areas like this top left-hand corner, which I'm looking at now, which looks as though they haven't been fully cleaned.
23:31There's an expression in the art world, porthole cleaning.
23:34You know, where you clean the body, the main area.
23:38In this case, possibly over-clean it.
23:41And then you leave the other bits.
23:44This picture has clearly suffered.
23:46And I need expert help to work out precisely what has happened to it.
23:51I'm meeting director of the Hamilton Car Institute, Professor Irma Hermans, specialist in paintings conservation.
23:59I just need to understand this picture through your technical eyes.
24:04What is going on?
24:06There's a clear presence of the weave of the canvas, which could be caused by a restoration treatment or aligning.
24:14And that has been attached with pressure and heat.
24:18And it seems that the canvas weave then is quite pronounced because of that.
24:24I see. So a new canvas has been put on the back to support it.
24:28Yes.
24:29And in that process it's been crushed?
24:31The surface is also abraded, so it must have been cleaned.
24:35A varnish was removed.
24:38The question is, how much of this picture could date to the time of Kaufmann?
24:42Given the abrasive over-cleaning, has it been partly hidden by later paint?
24:48What I've really tried to do with this picture is work out how much is honest and how much is later.
24:53Well, the first thing we would always do is look at the picture with ultraviolet light, which gives a sort of fluorescence.
25:01And areas where there's overpaint, the fluorescence usually is much less because there's less varnish there.
25:08And that will give us a very good impression of the extent of retouching and overpaint.
25:13Let's try it.
25:14What secrets or concerns might ultraviolet light reveal?
25:21We're joined by technical art historian Paul van Laar as we take a closer look.
25:27Just look at that.
25:28Yeah, this feels very excessive, the amount of overpaint.
25:34Large areas of the artist's original work have been covered with paint added by a later hand.
25:42Big splodges of rather frightening-looking purple.
25:45There's big, big patches right in her drapery, in her neck, and especially also that jawline.
25:51You would expect much more precise retouching on small damages, but that is quite extensive.
25:59So this would be the sort of the restorer equivalent of the builder from hell.
26:04This clumsy restoration may well conceal areas of damage or loss.
26:10So even if Laura's picture was painted by Kaufman, it's hard to know how much is actually left.
26:18Spending time with Laura's picture just reminds me of something that I'm absolutely convinced about,
26:25and that is that the history of art for old masters is not a history of what was painted, necessarily.
26:30It's a history of what remains.
26:34Irma and Paul need to conduct further tests
26:37to understand if those remnants of the original painting could be by Angelica Kaufman.
26:45The poor condition and overpaint could affect the willingness of experts
26:50to accept this work as genuine.
26:52And if they can see past the damage, there's still an impact on value.
26:58I need to break the bad news to Laura.
27:01So Laura, can you recall my initial sense of what the value of this might be if we were to be able to prove that it was by Angelica Kaufman?
27:13I believe it was originally around 60,000.
27:17The condition is, to be frank, a little bit worse than I thought.
27:21It's really been through the mill.
27:25The market for damaged paintings is limited.
27:29We may be looking at £20,000 to £30,000.
27:32I mean, yeah, I guess anything is good.
27:36So yeah, I think the return there is still very positive,
27:40considering I didn't know what I was buying at the time.
27:43Laura could have the later overpaint carefully removed and the picture restored,
27:50but skilled conservation comes at a price.
27:53The estimate for the restoration of this picture, if you were to go ahead,
27:58is between £11,000 and £13,000.
28:02If it was a painting that came into your gallery, what would you do if it was your picture?
28:06Well, I work in a business where I'm used to taking risks.
28:13And if I'd bought it as cheaply as you have, for a couple of hundred dollars,
28:19I would spend the money and I would get it done.
28:24But I'm not you.
28:26And you've got to appreciate just the good fortune you've had so far
28:32to find what is potentially a very important picture for so little.
28:38So, do you want to risk more?
28:42No, I think that makes sense.
28:45I mean, I think I have a good feeling about the painting.
28:49The condition is not what we would like it to be,
28:52but I still think that the picture itself has a great history.
28:58Laura has decided not to have the painting restored.
29:02But the poor condition means it's more important than ever
29:06to try to establish a provenance back to Angelica Kaufmann.
29:15I'm returning to the title of the painting when it was first sold in Pittsburgh,
29:20Portrait of Mrs Hunter.
29:22And I'm visiting the Hunterian Museum in London,
29:24which houses the archives of 18th century surgeon and anatomist John Hunter,
29:30as well as those of his wife, Anne, a celebrated poet.
29:35I've arranged to meet her biographer, Caroline Grigson.
29:38Hi, Caroline. Nice to meet you.
29:43Nice to meet you, too.
29:45What was Anne's connection with Kaufmann?
29:48Perhaps the poetry provides a clue.
29:50On the engraving, and in fact, on the painting we're investigating as well,
29:55there is a poem.
29:57Could this be by Anne Hunter?
29:59Yes, it is by Anne Hunter.
30:01It's known in the manuscript of her poems.
30:05So this is her writing, is it?
30:09Yes.
30:10On the dark bosom of the faithless Maine,
30:14where storm winds and howly tempests reign.
30:18How interesting.
30:19So this, in her own writing, in Anne's own writing,
30:24is what we see here at the bottom.
30:27And here, this is indeed by Angelica Kaufmann,
30:30of Laura's picture.
30:31Could Angelica Kaufmann have obtained the poem directly from its author?
30:38So we're talking about an artistic collaboration
30:41between Anne, or Mrs John Hunter, and Angelica Kaufmann.
30:45Yes, we are.
30:47So were they close, the two women?
30:49I think so.
30:51Anne's father eked out his stipend as an army surgeon in London
30:57by taking in lodgers.
30:59And his very first lodger was Angelica Kaufmann.
31:04Right.
31:06She wrote to her father,
31:08I am with excellent good people.
31:10The lady is like a mother to me,
31:12and her daughters are sisters.
31:16So they were very close then, Angelica and Anne.
31:20Yes, indeed.
31:21This explains how Anne might have come to be the model for Kaufmann's painting.
31:26The two young women, just a year apart in age, were friends,
31:30living in the same house.
31:32And do you know what happened to the picture, to the portrait once it was painted?
31:37It was kept by Anne until her death,
31:40when it was inherited by John Hunter's nephew, Dr Matthew Bailey.
31:48This is significant information.
31:51We now believe that the original painting by Angelica Kaufmann first belonged to Anne and John Hunter,
31:57and that it passed to their nephew, Matthew, in the 1820s.
32:01And after Matthew Bailey, what happened to the picture then?
32:07It stayed in the family until at least 1868, which we know from this reminiscence by his daughter.
32:16This manuscript here?
32:18Yes.
32:19I see. My brother has a beautiful portrait of her taken in her youth by Angelica Kaufmann.
32:25This is brilliant, Caroline, because you've taken us from the brush of Angelica Kaufmann
32:29through the Hunter family, then the Bailey family, as far as 1868.
32:34We have evidence now that Kaufmann's original picture of Anne Hunter
32:39remained in the same family until at least the 1860s.
32:42The next thing we know is that J.B. Lachlan bought Laura's Mrs. Hunter in 1921.
32:50With that frustrating gap in the provenance,
32:53can we be sure Laura's picture isn't just a later copy of the original work?
33:03It strikes me that we need to understand more about how Kaufmann's work was circulated and reproduced,
33:09and I'm keen to consult with an expert.
33:14Hello, Wendy.
33:16Hello. Very nice to meet you.
33:18Wendy Routh, Professor Emeritor of Art History at the University of Rhode Island,
33:23has studied Kaufmann's working practices.
33:26Is this an image you're familiar with?
33:29Yes, it is. I don't really know much about the painting.
33:33You know, I'm familiar more with the images that were made, the engravings that were made from that.
33:41How would people have responded to that image at that time?
33:45It would have been very popular as a kind of image of sentimentality,
33:50of this lovely young woman lost at sea.
33:52The symbolic representation of friendship and feeling was hugely fashionable in the late 18th century.
34:01Kaufmann was painting in an age of sensibility,
34:07when emotional experience was a growing focus of art and literature.
34:11So Kaufmann was dealing with a subject that would have really hit a nerve with London society or British society.
34:22Yes, definitely. Kaufmann's work was exceptionally popular through her lifetime and long after.
34:30She was a businesswoman as much as she was an artist.
34:34That she was painting for money, and copies were certainly made.
34:38It's clear that Kaufmann's depiction of the young woman mourning the death of a friend struck a deep chord.
34:46Multiple print versions had been made by the early 19th century.
34:50Some produced cheaply enough to reach a wide audience.
34:54Her images were reproduced in many different media, in ceramics, on textiles.
35:00They were painted on walls, they were painted on ceilings, and also copied on canvas.
35:06The process of making a print involves copying a painting onto a plate,
35:12and transferring the composition from the plate to paper,
35:16creating a mirror image of the original painting.
35:20A later artist painting a copy from a print would produce a picture with the sitter facing the same way as the prince.
35:27But there is a print where the girl faces right, just like in Laura's picture.
35:35Presumably it's possible that a sophisticated artist working from the engraving could have created a replica of it?
35:45Oh yes, definitely. And you know, it's always possible somebody did see the painting and wanted to make a copy of it.
35:53Either way, there is always a risk that Laura's painting is an imitation by another artist.
35:59A homage to Kaufmann's work, rather than the lost original.
36:09Back in Cambridge, there's a chance to put Laura's painting to the test.
36:14We need to check if the pigments in the picture could date to the time of Angelica Kaufmann.
36:20At the Hamilton Car Institute, Irma and Paul have studied the painting using state-of-the-art macro XRF.
36:29By scanning the surface of the painting with an X-ray beam, a map can be built up of each of the elements present,
36:37providing an insight into the pigments used.
36:41I can see you have been subjecting our woman to the third degree.
36:45Have you managed to find anything out?
36:49Well, we've been scanning the picture with macro XRF, which shows the elements in the paint.
36:54And this is the map for iron.
36:56Rather magically, you've given a sort of insight into the artistic speed and swiftness of it.
37:02One of the good things about this technique is that we can really look beneath the surface.
37:05So we see that sketch phase of an artist, and you see that soft brushwork, for example, on the hair.
37:11And you see the quality of a master painter at work.
37:14Well, it's rather remarkable.
37:16So, apart from the iron, what else have you found?
37:19We have a map for lead, which shows us the presence of lead white.
37:23Quite strikingly, we saw in her lap something that's not clear from the painting itself.
37:28Yes, so here you see little white flowers, lilies of the valley.
37:36Oh, that's thrilling.
37:38Whoever painted this originally intended there to be flowers in the figure's lap,
37:44but then decided not to include them in the final image and painted over them.
37:49These haven't been painted out by a later hand.
37:51This is whoever painted the original picture.
37:54That's the artist painting out the flowers.
37:57That seems to be the case, yes.
38:00So a pentiment, the artist changing their mind.
38:03Well, that's a revelation.
38:06It's reassuring to see evidence of an artist at work changing their mind as they go,
38:12rather than a copyist simply reproducing what's on the surface.
38:17But can we be sure the pigments are all typical of those used by Kaufmann?
38:23And then if we move to the zinc map, which relates to zinc white, which is a later pigment that wouldn't have been available during Kaufmann's life.
38:32Sorry, I've just got to stop you there. You found zinc white in this picture.
38:36Yeah.
38:37Which is not around when Angelica Kaufmann is around.
38:39No.
38:40That's right.
38:41No. It's just after her death that that starts to become available as an artist's pigment.
38:48So the zinc white is used in the places where the lead is gone or where most of the damage is.
38:56So it seems to point at a later restoration rather than a post dated painting.
39:01Ah, you were messing with her mind there, weren't you?
39:04Yes.
39:05OK, so we don't need to worry about that. OK, we already know that this picture has been damaged and overzealously restored.
39:13So finding later pigment in these areas is perhaps not surprising.
39:18Tell me about the inscription at the bottom right.
39:20Yeah, so we were hoping to visualise that better with infrared, but actually the normal image we took with some image tweaking was worked out to be the best.
39:29Ah, that's much better. The poem composed by Anne Hunter is suddenly much more visible.
39:36And that's the first time that we managed to read this text to a relative full extent.
39:41I mean, this is all entirely readable writing. I mean, it's beautifully clear.
39:47But a question I need to ask is, is it contemporaneous with the rest of the painting? Was it done at the same time?
39:55It seems like it was added at the same time as painting.
39:58And I'd love to know what Angelica Kaufmann's handwriting was like.
40:02That is really interesting too.
40:04It's a beautiful fine handwriting, especially done with a brush.
40:08Yeah.
40:09I'm picking up the new clue provided by the poem.
40:17I've come to Twickenham, London, to meet graphologist Adam Brand.
40:22Can he determine whether the writing on Laura's picture is in the hand of Angelica Kaufmann herself?
40:27So this is the painting we're looking at, which the owner obviously hopes is by Angelica Kaufmann.
40:35The writing on it may be by Angelica Kaufmann, maybe by someone completely different.
40:42Now I've looked at a number of paintings by Angelica Kaufmann that have words that have been painted.
40:48And here's an example of that.
40:50This painting depicting the poet Virgil at work provides a clear example of Kaufmann's painted writing for Adam to compare with Laura's picture.
41:00And if you look at it more closely, the right way up, you can see similarities between her way that she's painted these words and the words that are painted on the picture that we're examining.
41:13The point about these that are similar is the fact that they are disconnected.
41:18When you say disconnected, you mean the writing is not joined up?
41:20Yes, the letters are not.
41:21They're all separate?
41:22All separate.
41:24In her painted writing, Kaufmann doesn't join up her letters, and neither did the artist who painted Laura's picture.
41:32A good start.
41:33You see that both in the painting that we're examining and another example is the letter that she wrote when she first came to London.
41:44This letter, written not long before Laura's picture may have been painted, makes it clear that Kaufmann barely joined her handwriting at all.
41:53It closely matches Laura's picture in style.
41:56And look at those curly Ds.
41:58Is there anything else about the writing on the painting that strikes you as noteworthy?
42:07The other thing is the fact that some of the lines are quite close together.
42:11So you mean the bottom of things like the G can sometimes overlap with the top of something like the T.
42:18So here's a space issue, and you see it in the letter again.
42:22Here we have a letter where there's a lot of space around it.
42:26She's not cramming her lines together because she's trying to save space or save paper, because there's lots of paper here.
42:32She's doing it because this is a characteristic that's unique to her.
42:37She tends to write her lines quite close together.
42:40And is that unusual, Adam?
42:42Other people do it, but what you're trying to find out is what are the unconscious characteristics that in combination are in all the writing that she has and in the question writing as well.
42:53So what you're saying is anyone could do any of these individual characteristics, but to find them all together points to one particular person.
43:04Yes. One's always looking for a combination of unique unconscious movements to see whether they're coming together and they're similar to what we're looking at.
43:12And here we have a case where those similarities are very strong. And that's why I think it's highly probable that those painted words on the question painting were done by Angelica Kaufmann.
43:24Adam's comparisons are certainly persuasive. And if Angelica Kaufmann painted the words of Anne Hunter's poem, then surely she must have painted the whole picture.
43:34It's becoming clear that Laura's painting has a strong claim to be the lost Kaufmann original.
43:46But because of the poor condition, we still need to muster all the evidence we can get.
43:53I've been looking for clues in the prints made after Kaufmann's painting, starting with the most familiar version.
44:00Now, this one here was done by William Wynne Ryland in 1774, professional printmaker under the supervision of Angelica Kaufmann.
44:13There are clear differences between this print and Laura's portrait, most noticeably in the way the flowers are depicted and in added flowers in the crook of the woman's arm.
44:24But this wasn't the first print made after Kaufmann's picture.
44:27If we go back seven years earlier, there's a print that was executed by Angelica Kaufmann herself.
44:34The way this becomes really interesting is if you go to the proof print.
44:39That's the very first stage that, apart from the artist, extremely few people would have seen.
44:45And this is the genesis of the process.
44:47The print shows the hand of Kaufmann directly.
44:52She's added shading and details in ink.
44:55And the new additions all work to make this image more exactly like Laura's painting.
45:01Look at the way the hand is curled around the urn.
45:05And with those rather curious pointy knuckles, strikingly similar.
45:14And look when I do a detail of the heads, how these similarities continue.
45:19This little cluster of three flowers becomes much clearer and subtle but nonetheless indicative.
45:27The shadow on her face around her eye, very similar, very comparable.
45:35So what can we infer from this?
45:37Well, I know what I'm thinking.
45:41Whoever did this original proof print, and we know it to be Angelica Kaufmann,
45:46is likely to be the same person who did Laura's painting.
45:51I think all of this adds up to something really very exciting.
45:57I think we're ready to show it to an appropriate expert.
46:00Dr Bettina Baumkartel, head of the Angelica Kaufmann Research Project, is in London.
46:10She is in the process of preparing a catalogue raisonnée,
46:14the definitive list of what is and isn't a Kaufmann.
46:19She is asked to take a look at the painting before we present her with our evidence.
46:24Can she see at work the defining qualities of Kaufmann?
46:32I think what is nice, if you see the hair and the wonderful flowers,
46:40this is very typical, I think.
46:43And even the hands, it's very typical to have long fingers and nails,
46:51wonderful done and painted.
46:55Even the inscription, I think, could be very typical.
47:00It's maybe her handwriting.
47:03This would be wonderful to have.
47:06Encouraging, but it's not all good news.
47:10There are some parts which I like,
47:13and could be by Angelica Kaufmann.
47:16But others, we really see it is overpainted, it has lost some surface.
47:26So it's a bit difficult to judge.
47:31It sounds like Bettina has some reservations about Laura's picture.
47:36Is there anything more that we can do?
47:38I'm taking one last look at the Provenance.
47:45We now believe the original painting by Kaufmann
47:48was with the Hunter family until at least the 1860s.
47:52Laura's picture turns up in Pittsburgh at the J.J. Gillespie Gallery
47:5760 years later in 1921.
47:59Can we fill that gap?
48:01In a biography of Angelica Kaufmann from 1925, there's a reference to a famous London art dealer, Arthur Tooth & Sons.
48:14In the possession of this firm was a portrait of Mrs. John Hunter.
48:19It certainly sounds like Laura's picture, but I can go one better than that.
48:24There is an image of the picture. Here it is.
48:29It looks exactly like Laura's painting.
48:33Thrillingly, records for Tooth & Sons are preserved in the archives of the Getty Center in Los Angeles.
48:40And we've made a discovery in the original sales ledgers.
48:45Look at this here.
48:511917, October 31st.
48:54This is when Arthur Tooth & Sons acquired a painting called
48:59Mrs. John Hunter by Angelica Kaufmann.
49:07And looking across the page, it was acquired from Foster's Auction House
49:11for £69.06.
49:15And sold in 1918, so a year later, to J.J. Gillespie of Pittsburgh.
49:22So that is one gap in the problem.
49:24Neatly filled.
49:26But there's more. There's a red note in the margin. Have a look.
49:29It says...
49:30Collection of Mrs. Helen Hunter Bailey, 111, Sherland Road, West Kilburn.
49:36I've looked into Helen Hunter Bailey. Here she is, look. Magnificent photograph.
49:41And she was the granddaughter of Matthew Bailey, who was the nephew of Anne Hunter, also known, of course, as Mrs. John Hunter.
49:51And she sold a number of pages that she had through Foster's Auction House in 1917, before she moved into a care home in her old age.
49:59So think about it. We have an extraordinary line of provenance now, the kind of line of provenance we hardly ever get on Fake or Fortune.
50:08We look as if we have a continuous line from Angelica Kaufmann in the late 18th century, via her friend Anne Hunter, also known as Mrs. John Hunter,
50:17to her great-grandniece, Helen Hunter Bailey, to Foster's Auction House, to Arthur Tooth and the Sons, to J.J. Gillespie in Pittsburgh, to J.B. Lachlan, and then Laura.
50:31Laura. It's pretty impressive.
50:34Surely this is it. This has to be Kaufmann's original picture. The evidence is so compelling.
50:43Laura's painting is certainly the one that was recorded in the Hunter family.
50:48But is that proof of the hand of Kaufmann? And will the condition count against the picture?
50:55Laura and Pat have flown over from the United States to find out.
50:59We've been in London since yesterday. Just doing a little sightseeing. I'm excited.
51:04I'm excited to find out what additional information they've discovered about the painting since we last talked to them.
51:12Also just excited to find out whether it's real or not.
51:14Based on the research that everybody's done, it seems to point back to the artist and I feel it's real.
51:23Renowned Kaufmann expert Professor Wendy Routh and Dr Bettina Palmgatel, who is preparing the catalogue raisonné, have both studied our detailed dossier of evidence on the picture and sent through their verdict.
51:38Hi Laura. Hi Pat. Hello. Hi both of you.
51:45Have Laura and Pat discovered a lost work by the great Angelica Kaufmann?
51:51How are you feeling about all this? We're excited. Yeah. I'm a little nervous.
51:56I'm not surprised. Let's just talk about values. We need to do that.
52:00So, Philip, talk us through what we could be talking about.
52:04If this does get a clean bill of health as work by Angelica Kaufmann, and let us not forget, this is a damaged picture.
52:11So, we're talking actually a fraction of what it could be worth if it were in great state, but if we can attach the name, I think it's going to be worth £30,000.
52:24If, however, it is described as a copy after, in other words, not by the hand of the woman in question, well, it's a decorative picture, it's worth a few hundred pounds.
52:36Sounds good. Yep. OK. We've got a slightly unusual situation actually. So, Philip, do you want to kick us off?
52:43I have a letter here from Professor Wendy Roweth.
52:49And it begins.
52:51After examining the painting, reviewing documentary and historical sources, provenance, technical and handwriting reports,
52:59I can confirm this is the original work painted by Angelica Kaufmann in London, 1766 to 1767.
53:11Look at you. You're so dumb.
53:13Oh, yeah. Wow.
53:14I'm like waiting for the butt.
53:16All right.
53:18What do you think of that, Lou?
53:19Well, that's good news. Yeah.
53:20You're excited.
53:21I mean, look, this is as good as you get. But remember, there are two opinions, both of whom are respected voices.
53:30So, the other person looking at the picture is Dr Bettina Baumgartel. Now, she is also a renowned specialist, but crucially, she is the woman responsible for the catalogue resume, which is the authorised list of the painter's works.
53:44Okay. Verdict number two. She says, in my estimation, the inscription is in the artist's own handwriting. Great.
53:52She says that for certain?
53:53Yes. She talks about the condition of the painting, loss of large parts of the upper layers, excessive cleaning, significant abrasion.
54:05Oh, hang on a second there.
54:06She says the various parts, the hair with the floral decoration, for example, are well-preserved, showing Kauffman's typical brushstrokes. Areas of it are apparently the artist's own work. They speak for an authentic work and not that of a copyist. That sounds good.
54:23The painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue resume of the paintings, prints and drawings by Angelica Kauffman as a painting attributed to the artist.
54:34What does she mean by attributed?
54:37Well, attributed is one of those slightly tricky words in the art world. It means could well be by the artist in question, but not definitely.
54:48Gosh, what do we... What do you make of that?
54:51I don't know. It's almost like she wants to say it is, but doesn't feel 100% sure in saying so. But pieces of it are.
55:02Yeah, that is... That's how it reads to me, actually.
55:05Yeah, I think that's a really appropriate reading of it.
55:10Based off of what she said, how would that impact the value?
55:13So this would probably formally be sold, let's say it came up at an auction, as attributed to Angelica Kauffman.
55:23But a proper catalogue entry would have these effective endorsements, and it would also have Professor Wendy Roth's support for it.
55:35So I suspect that a lot of collectors would feel pretty comfortable with that, but not totally comfortable.
55:45And I think I'm going to hazard putting a price on that. I think it's somewhere in between.
55:5120,000 pounds.
55:54What do you make of that?
55:55Still very good.
55:56Yeah.
55:57Remind us how much you paid for it?
55:59Uh, $200.
56:00Oh gosh, okay.
56:01Okay, that's a pretty good return on investment.
56:04Yes.
56:05What do you think of the picture now?
56:06Yeah, no, I still think it's a beautiful painting, and I still think the historical value of the sitter, the poem, you know, the painting itself, and the history behind it all, like, make it an incredible story.
56:19So when I came to see you, it was in the closet.
56:22Yeah.
56:23So memorably.
56:24Oh yeah.
56:25So, with what you've got now, what do you think you want to do then?
56:29I mean, ultimately, I think, like, we would like to sell it and have it somewhere that other people can appreciate it, or a collector can appreciate it, versus in our closet.
56:39We've been talking to the Hunterian Museum here in London.
56:44It would be very helpful, I think, to have this loaned to a museum of that stature.
56:50Yeah.
56:51Yeah.
56:52From the suburbs of Pittsburgh to the heart of London, Laura and Pat's painting may finally be coming home.
56:59When I first saw this picture at Laura and Pat's house, it was in the dark, hidden away.
57:06And now it's come out of the closet in a manner of speaking.
57:09Personally, I think this picture is by Angelica Kaufman, but I totally understand where Bettina's coming from.
57:17And if, in the end, this picture does end up at the Hunterian Museum, that would be a painting of Anne Hunter reunited with her husband at his museum.
57:28And I think that would be a very fitting end.
57:31If you think you have an undiscovered masterpiece or other precious object, contact us at bbc.co.uk slash fake or fortune.
57:42We'll see you next time.
57:55We'll see you next time.
57:59Bye.
58:01Bye.
58:02Bye.
58:03Bye.
58:06Bye.