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A selection of updates made through submissions to Art Detective. None became public discussions, because there was sufficient supporting evidence for the collections.


Portraits dominate, but the selection includes a seascape, a townscape, two religious subjects, an abstract and a horse fair!


If you think you can help Art UK, whether by identifying an artist, sitter or subject, or with dates or provenance, please go to the artwork page on Art UK and select 'Send information to Art Detective', supported by evidence. Enquiries that could benefit from further research can be added to our public Discussions.


Thank you, as ever, to all our contributors, with special thanks to our Volunteer Alistair Brown for all his work behind the scenes.

10 artworks
  • Religious subject clarified

    Alistair Brown pointed out that this work, previously catalogued as a Madonna and Child with Saints Anne and John, shows The Marriage of Saint Catherine. This picture is almost exactly the same size as another version considered to be by Titian’s younger brother, Francesco Vecellio, in the Royal Collection. The Royal Collection has been informed of the existence of the work in Brighton, which was not one of the copies listed in Shearman's catalogue Early Italian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty (1983).


    The title has been changed and the work listed as possibly by Vecellio: to correspond with this, the dating has been amended to c.1520–1540, the range used for the version in the Royal Collection.


    Contributor: Alistair Brown

    The Marriage of Saint Catherine c.1520–1540
    Francesco Vecellio (1475–1559) (possibly)
    Oil on canvas
    H 74 x W 94 cm
    Brighton & Hove Museums
    The Marriage of Saint Catherine
    Image credit: Brighton & Hove Museums

  • Dring discovered in Northumberland library

    An unknown artist's Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman (possibly William Craig) has been identified as a portrait by William Dring of Dr Wilfred Hall (1874–1952), MA, DSc, FRCS. Dr Hall was a former Chairman of Hall Bros, Newcastle and director of several Tyneside firms and philanthropic local institutions as well as Vice-Chairman of the University of Durham, who conferred on him his DSc for contributions to science. This included significant contributions in astronomy, undertaken as a keen amateur. It is thanks in part to his efforts in founding and supporting new building that Newcastle became a centre for academic excellence in the sciences.


    Contributor: Elin Jones

    Dr Wilfred Hall (1874–1952), MA, DSc, FRCS c.1953
    William D. Dring (1904–1990)
    Oil on canvas
    H 61 x W 51 cm
    Northumberland County Council Libraries
    Dr Wilfred Hall (1874–1952), MA, DSc, FRCS
    © the artist's estate / Bridgeman Images. Image credit: Northumberland County Council Libraries

  • Artist's nephew identifies a work by Donald Pass

    This work listed as by an unknown artist in the Leicestershire County Council collection was identified by Donald Pass's nephew as one of his uncle's works from the 1960s. Pass worked in oil, watercolour and pastel, studying first at Stoke-on-Trent College of Art, 1947–1951, with Arthur Berry and Arnold Machin, then at the Royal Academy Schools, 1951–1954, under Henry Rushbury, William Dring and Gilbert Spencer.


    Contributor: Richard Pass

    Swan Alighting 1960s
    Donald Pass (1930–2010)
    Oil on canvas
    H 62 x W 57 cm
    Leicestershire County Council Artworks Collection
    Swan Alighting
    © the artist's estate. Image credit: Leicestershire County Council Artworks Collection

  • Records for Gerald Hudson(s) amended

    Thanks to Kieran Owens' research, this is one of five works now collected under the new details for artist Gerald Cedric Hudson (1894–1966). Kieran gave us the sitter's dates and titles, followed by biographical details about the artist. This led us to delve into other works on Art UK attributed to other Gerald Hudsons. Thanks to Kieran and Alistair Brown, our volunteer, for documentary research and checking high-resolution images of the signatures, we were able to merge records for Gerald Hudson (no dates) and Gerald Hudson (active c.1918–1932), into a single record for Gerald Cedric Hudson (1894–1966). The five collections involved were, remarkably, in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland!


    Contributor: Kieran Owens

    Sir Granville Bantock (1868–1946), First Principal of the Birmingham and Midland Institute School of Music (1900–1934), Peyton Professor of Music, University of Birmingham (1908–1934) c.1940
    Gerald Cedric Hudson (1894–1966)
    Oil on canvas
    H 106 x W 85 cm
    Birmingham City University
    Sir Granville Bantock (1868–1946), First Principal of the Birmingham and Midland Institute School of Music (1900–1934), Peyton Professor of Music, University of Birmingham (1908–1934)
    © the copyright holder. Image credit: Birmingham City University

  • Contemplation rewarded

    Formerly titled Soothsayer with a Skull, the subject is now correctly identified as a Franciscan monk in contemplation of the Bible. A signature, noted on the front left-hand side of the book, was identified as that of Charles Augustin Wauters (1811–1869), the first known work by the Belgian artist in a UK public collection.


    Contributors: Alistair Brown and Jacinto Regalado

    Franciscan Monk in Contemplation of the Bible 1852
    Charles Augustin Wauters (1811–1869)
    Oil on canvas
    H 78.5 x W 64.5 cm
    Bruce Castle Museum (Haringey Archive and Museum Service)
    Franciscan Monk in Contemplation of the Bible
    Image credit: Bruce Castle Museum (Haringey Archive and Museum Service)

  • Fair discovery

    Another first for Art UK, this scene at a horse fair in the collection of Paisley Museum has been identified as a work by nineteenth-century Austrian artist Otto von Thoren. It had been catalogued as by 'W. O. Thoron', a misreading of the rather indistinct signature, which on closer inspection could be seen to be 'Thoren' and the date '74' made out. The original bequest listed the artist as 'A. J. Thoren' and a particularly close signature was sourced from a good high-resolution image at the Dorotheum, which along with examples of the artist's subject matter and further signatures available online, provided enough evidence for a firm attribution.


    Contributor: Martin Hopkinson

    The Horse Fair 1874
    Otto von Thoren (1828–1889)
    Oil on canvas
    H 32 x W 49 cm
    Paisley Museum and Art Galleries, Renfrewshire Council Collections
    The Horse Fair
    Image credit: Paisley Museum and Art Galleries, Renfrewshire Council Collections

  • Quarantine in 1866

    As a result of a snippet from the digitised 1866 edition of Official Reports of debates in Parliament, further details were added to Art UK on the history of this mid-Channel quarantine ship and the conditions in it. Pieter van der Merwe, Art Detective Group Leader for Maritime Subjects, produced a substantial new entry for the painting for Art UK and the collection.


    The hulk in question is the converted former 38-gun frigate 'Menelaus' which spent its last 60 years as a hospital and later quarantine ship, latterly opposite Binstead, Isle of Wight.


    Fowles was an Isle of Wight painter operating in Ryde, who produced yachting and other local subjects.


    Contributors: Jim Boyd and Pieter van der Merwe

    The Pilot Cutter 'Fox' and a Quarantine Hulk off Binstead 1865
    Arthur Wellington Fowles (1815–1883)
    Oil on canvas
    H 20.5 x W 30.5 cm
    National Maritime Museum
    The Pilot Cutter 'Fox' and a Quarantine Hulk off Binstead
    Image credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

  • Signature revealed as 'Van Dorne'

    Former attributions to Mrs Anne Mee (1765–1851), 'unknown artist' and 'F. van Donne', were overturned when the signature was confirmed in 2020 to be that of Frans van Dorne and the work dated to 1817–1818, during his period in Paris. This portrait is the first work by this Flemish pupil of Jacques-Louis David to be recorded on Art UK. Van Dorne was born and worked in Louvain, but trained in Paris under David, eventually returning to his homeland in 1822. A painter of portraits, religious subjects and still lifes, his work shows the influence of French Neoclassicism.


    Contributors: Nick de Salis and Rodolph de Salis

    Henrietta Fane de Salis, née Foster (c.1785–1856), Countess de Salis 1817–1818
    Frans van Dorne (1776–1848)
    Oil on copper
    H 25.4 x W 21 cm
    Tabley House Collection
    Henrietta Fane de Salis, née Foster (c.1785–1856), Countess de Salis
    Image credit: Tabley House Collection

  • Quimperlé depicted

    Guillaume Evrard passed on an extremely helpful tweet by The Musée de Bretagne (Rennes) confirming that this charming streetscape is a view of Quimperlé, as shown in a postcard from their collection.


    Contributor: Guillaume Evrard

    Breton Village c.1882
    Norman Garstin (1847–1926)
    Oil on canvas
    H 89 x W 89.5 cm
    The Box, Plymouth
    Breton Village
    Image credit: The Box, Plymouth

  • Cardiff character from Ancona

    Based on the recorded signature, 'L.F. Paggi', Tim Toman informed us that this painting must be by Luciano Francesco Paggi (1826–1903), born in Ancona, who was resident in Cardiff for a time. Kieran Owens subsequently provided further biographical details of this painter, described by one of his descendants as 'the Italian flautist, painter and revolutionary.' He was principally a flautist, and with his son and daughters, performed all over Britain as 'The Paggi Family'.


    Contributor: Tim Toman and Kieran Owens

    Alderman Thomas Evans (c.1814–1883), JP, Surgeon, Mayor of Cardiff (1868–1869) 1872 (?)
    Luciano Francesco Paggi (1826–1903)
    Oil on canvas
    H 65.3 x W 55 cm
    Cardiff Council
    Alderman Thomas Evans (c.1814–1883), JP, Surgeon, Mayor of Cardiff (1868–1869)
    Image credit: Cardiff Council