Tonight:
5°c
A London dealer dubbed the "art detective" has discovered a lost painting that shows the genius of Thomas Gainsborough from childhood.
Philip Mould, 49, spotted the work on sale in Los Angeles, described as a Dutch landscape with an estimated price of £1,000 to £1,500.
But he realised it was an unknown early version of Cornard Wood, Suffolk, on display in the National Gallery. His find was produced eight years earlier, in 1740 when Gainsborough (1727-88) was 13, making it one of the artist's earliest known landscapes.
Mr Mould, who is an expert on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow, snapped it up for around £60,000 after fierce bidding against another London dealer at the auction three years ago. He has since sold it to a private collector for a fee he refuses to reveal. But comparable landscapes fetch between £300,000 and £500,000.
The story is revealed today in a new book, Sleuth: The Amazing Quest for Lost Art Treasures, which tells of great discoveries by Mr Mould and his rivals. It also shows the often forensic art history detective work behind them.
The painting is being lent to the Gainsborough House Museum in Sudbury, where the artist grew up. Diane Perkins, the museum's director, said: "The discovery of this early painting has been a major one in terms of recent Gainsborough scholarship. It is both appropriate and very exciting that the picture should be unveiled at the artist's birthplace museum."
The find may also solve the mystery of what the artist meant when late in life he spoke of the National Gallery's masterpiece. Gainsborough, who was earning money from his art from the age of 10, wrote that Cornard Wood "was actually painted at Sudbury in the year 1748; it was begun before I left school...and was the means of my father's sending me to London."
Scholars have long puzzled over the eight-year gap between school and the known painting, but the earlier version would explain this.
Cornard Wood was painted from the hill at Abbas Hall looking over the River Stour. The earlier painting is at the museum from Monday for a month.
