Yorkshire mum's amazing art find
A painting bought for just £45 by a Yorkshire Mum who was actually browsing the Internet looking for toys at the time it is expected to make thousands when it goes under the hammer in an auction in Scarborough on Friday.
The unsigned painting depicting a woman and a girl sewing outside their cottage was described as a watercolour by Hilda May Gordon (1874-1972), a minor British artist whose pictures can usually be picked up for less than a hundred pounds.
However the young woman began to have doubts about that attribution almost as soon as it arrived. It simply didn't look like the work of Hilda May Gordon to her. So she started online research - and hit the jackpot almost immediately.
She found pictures that were remarkably similar to hers, painted not by Hilda Gordon but by New Zealand-born Frances Mary Hodgkins (1869-1947), one of most the most prestigious and influential female painters of the early 20th century. Hodgkins work sells for thousands.
And the identification of her painting as a lost Hodgkins has been confirmed by Mary Kisler, the Auckland Art Gallery curator, art historian and Hodgkins biographer who is THE Hodgkins specialist.
Kisler says the picture is one of a number of watercolours painted by Hodgkins in the early years of the 20th century on the theme of women doing handiwork outside their homes and it is to be added to the artist's catalogue raisonné, the list of her work.
The painting is to go under the hammer in the Winter Art Sale at David Duggleby's Vine Street Saleroom in Scarborough on Friday (November 28) bearing a pre-sale estimate of £8,000-£12,000.
"It is that valuation that decided the owner to sell," said Dominic Cox, Duggleby's Head of Art. "She remarked that she was finding it difficult to sleep at night knowing there was a ten thousand pounds painting just hanging on the sitting room wall."
"We were amazed when we heard the story. The young woman - who has asked that she remain anonymous - does have an interest in antiques and collectables and apparently enjoys browsing the various online market places but on this occasion she was actually looking for toys for her young son when the painting caught her eye."
"For someone who is not an art specialist to spot that the painting wasn't by who it was said to be by . . . then find out who it was by . . . and then have it confirmed by the world's leading expert . . . is just astonishing."
"Incidentally she was aware of Mary Kisler's name thanks to a Fake or Fortune programme broadcast on the BBC just a few weeks earlier. You really couldn't make it up!"
Dominic added: "Although Frances Mary Hodgkins was born in New Zealand, she made her name in Europe after moving to London to study in 1901. She lived in England and France for the rest of her life. At the time of her death in Dorset in 1947 she was regarded as one of Britain's leading artists."
"From diaries, letters and other records now preserved in New Zealand, Mary Kisler has been able to establish that the watercolour of the woman and girl sewing was painted during a trip to Holland, almost certainly in 1908".
The painting is expected to be the star lot in the Winter Art Sale that extends to 180 lots. Viewing is taking place at the Vine Street Salerooms in Scarborough throughout the week including Friday morning (28th) until the start of the auction at 11am.
The catalogue is available on the firm’s website.