Victorian portrait may be Roadshow record
A LOST Victorian portrait, which has been rediscovered on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, has “stunned the art world”.
The work is by Neoclassical painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, who is described as “the most valuable Victorian artist today” after one of his large paintings sold for $36 million, according to the programme’s pictures expert Rupert Maas.
The treasure features the engraver Leopold Lowenstam, whose great-great grandson brought it to an Antiques Roadshow event at Arley Hall, Cheshire, in June.
It was a wedding gift to Mr Lowenstam, a close family friend, and his wife Alice Search in 1883. She was the governess of Sir Lawrence’s children.
The portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy a year later.
Mr Maas said: “Tadema holds the record for a Victorian painting for an enormous picture sold in New York a few years ago.
“This one doesn’t quite reach that because it’s not of a Neoclassical subject and it’s not huge. But it is very, very good, and shows another, more painterly side of his work than the girls in togas sitting on marble benches that he is known for.
“I think this might be one of the best pictures we’ve ever seen on the Roadshow in its entire history. There are hardly any portraits of engravers at work, and this is one of the most telling and beautiful.”
The painting’s value will be revealed on the show on BBC One tonight.