LONDON — Scholars have just confirmed the attribution to Thomas Gainsborough of a previously unknown portrait. The piece pictures Catherine Warnford, of Warnford Place, and it has remained in her family since it was commissioned in the mid-18th century.
"There's no other portrait painter that paints in such a free, impressionist way," director of the Old Masters department Andrew McKenzie told ARTINFO UK. "In that period, artists are much stiffer, harder in their technique — that's why it's really unquestionably Gainsborough."
The sitter is pictured in an elegant powder blue silk gown, complete with lace shawl. Around the time of the picture, she had inherited the estate of her father, a drug merchant from Southwark, and would go on to inherit from her sister in 1805.
Gainsborough is thought to have executed this portrait of the heiress in Bath in 1766, while he was honing his skills as a society painter. The piece is the star lot of Bonhams's Old Master Paintings sale on July 4th, sporting a relatively modest presale estimate of £20,000-30,000 ($31,000-47,000).
"It is incredibly rare for an unknown painting by such a well-documented artist as Gainsborough to emerge on the open market, and it is a truly exciting moment when a discovery like this is made," commented McKenzie.