Art enthusiast unearths earliest Gainsborough at a regional auction house
Portrait of mystery woman bought for £2,600 is authenticated by expert as artist’s work as a 15-year-old
WHEN browsing regional auction catalogues online, it is every buyer’s dream to discover a hidden gem nestling among the thousands of unwanted old paintings, pieces of furniture and miscellany.
Few can say they have reached the heights of stumbling across a Gainsborough portrait.
And only one can claim to have found the earliest known painting by the British artist, created when he was 15.
Robert Mulraine, a re- tired company director, appears to have done just that, with the help of his son, James, an art restorer, as an “extra pair of eyes”. He secured the misattributed painting at auction for £2,600 and it has now been authenticated as a young Gainsborough, and is likely to sell for many times that amount. It will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné by Hugh Belsey, the art historian and world authority on Gainsborough. It is believed the portrait of an unknown woman, was painted around 1742. The current record for selling a Gainsborough work stands at £6.5 million, for the exceptional Portrait of Miss Read, Later Mrs William Villebois at Christie’s in 2011. Mr Mulraine said he hoped a museum may like to acquire the painting. He told The Daily Telegraph he had become involved in searching for misattributed paintings online with his son who trained at the Courtald Institute and has previously worked with Philip Mould, known for his BBC art discovery show, Fake or Fortune?
“It’s incredibly exciting ... so anything that I see that I think looks interesting I send an image [to his son].
“He thought at first glance [his discovery] had the look of Francis Hayman, but then he said there was definitely something special about it. You can imagine we were quite excited.”
The painting was shown to Belsey, who said he reserves “a great deal of suspicion for things which arrive out of the blue” from over-enthusiastic collectors. But he was so convinced by this painting. “It’s very early, and it would therefore not be recognised as Gainsborough by everybody,” he said. “That’s why it’s exciting.”
The earliest known painting from Gainsborough so far, of a dog, is dated 1745, with Belsey believing this work was completed even earlier.