Members of the 'Understanding British Portraits' network at the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh, part of the Portrait Collections in Edinburgh event 18 September 2015

Collections & Acquisitions Category

Unidentified Sitter in Re-discovered 17th Century Portrait

  A recently discovered painting dated 1626 features an unidentified, regally-dressed child. The previously forgotten painting was left hanging behind an open door for several decades and was uncovered by an antiques expert during a house clearance, following the death of its owner. The 400-year-old portrait could fetch 20,000 pounds at auction. It bears the name Adriaen Verkins (possibly Dutch) and is dated […]

Read More

Cézanne Portrait discovered behind a Still Life of Bread and Eggs

  The Cincinnati Art Museum has discovered that underneath Cezanne’s Still Life With Bread And Eggs lies a portait, potentially a self-portrait. Serena Urry, the museums chief conservator, sent the painting for an X-ray following a routine inspection. Whilst early craquelure was unsurpirinsg, it’s clustering into two specific areas raised eyebrows. The X-ray as seen […]

Read More

Pre-Raphaelite painting by Rebecca Solomon at risk of leaving the UK

    A temporary export bar has been placed on Rebecca Solomon’s portrait of Fanny Eaton. Solomon was a pioneering Jewish painter who campaigned for women artists. In  ‘A Young Teacher’ Fanny Eaton, whose mother was a former enslaved woman in Jamaica, poses as an Indian nursemaid. The piece provides a nuanced and sensitive perspective […]

Read More

Richmond Barthé’s Seated Man in a Landscape

Previously misattributed, Richmond Barthé’s Seated Man in a Landscape goes on display at the National Trust’s Belton House after new research confirms both the artist and sitter. The sitter has been identified as Lucian Levers, who was employed as Barthé’s helper at Lolaus, the artist’s house and studio in St Ann Parish, Jamaica. Read about the research here.

Read More

Exhibition: Foundling Portraits Campaign, Foundling Museum, until 30 October 2022

In this landmark project renowned artists give 25,000+ looked-after children visibility after 280 years, commemorating the lost faces of children given into care between 1741-1954. Permanently revolutionising the Foundling Museum’s 280-year-old collection, it commissioned five major artists to create portraits of five exceptional sitters – former pupils of the Foundling Hospital – to hang alongside […]

Read More

A re-discovered portrait of Charles Marsh FSA by L.F. Abbott from the 1790s

Society of Antiquaries of London lecture by Maurice Howard, FSA The recent gift to the Society of this sensitive and haunting portrait enables investigation of the lively debate about antiquities in the late 18th century, the way that learned gentlemen of considerable means chose to create their self-image and, since Marsh lived at Twickenham, its […]

Read More