An episode of the BBC One documentary series Fake or Fortune? that aired on July 23 confirmed that a previously unattributed artwork was in fact painted by the 18th century Scottish artist Katherine Read. The painting belongs to Mary-Louise Wedderburn, a retired accountant who inherited it from her uncle 20 years ago.
Wedderburn presented the gold-framed painting—a portrait of a young Indian woman with a languid expression, wearing several strands of pearl necklaces and a large emerald pendant—wrapped in a sleeping bag. According to the BBC, their research team wasn’t going in complete cold: Wedderburn had an inkling that it could be by Read, who was a distant relative. The painting is estimated to be worth approximately $130,000.
Read was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1723. She traveled with a niece to India in the mid-1770s, and died en route back to England the following year. During the 18th century, she was well-known for oil and pastel portraits, often depicting women and children. According to a post by the McManus, a museum in Dundee that owns a portrait by Read, she charged the same fee for a full-length portrait (150 guineas) as Joshua Reynolds, an indication of her esteem at the time. As a point of comparison, Thomas Gainsborough charged 100 guineas. Two centuries later, both Reynolds and Gainsborough are considered leading British portrait artists, while Read is largely forgotten.
Fake or Fortune? is filmed in London’s West End and is hosted by journalist and presenter Fiona Bruce and art dealer and art historian Philip Mould. Mould also runs a London gallery, Philip Mould & Company, that sells work by modern British artists and Old Masters.
During the course of the episode, Bruce and Mould consulted professors and historians in Dundee and Chennai, India, to try and determine the painter’s identity and that of the mysterious sitter. Charles Greig, a British academic who specializes in Indian art, says in the episode that he is “entirely certain that this painting is by Katherine Read.” The unidentified sitter, meanwhile, is believed to be a wife of a nawab, or an Indian prince.
