Focus on Saint Amelia, Queen of Hungary and explore the Fake or Fortune?.
The Fake or Fortune? team investigated a version of the painting, housed at Castle of Park in Cornhill, Aberdeenshire, to determine whether it was the Delaroche original or one of a number of copies. This unsigned work was bought in 1989, for about £500, by the late Neil Wilson, an art dealer who had worked for Christie's after leaving university. The painting's provenance was very poor. In the programme, art expert Bendor Grosvenor revealed an 1866 watercolour by Joseph Nash depicting the painting in the Queen's bedroom at Claremont House in Surrey, where the deposed King and Queen lived after fleeing France following the Revolution of 1848. Following Maria Amalia's death in 1866, records in the Bibliothèque nationale de France proved that the painting passed to her fourth child, Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours, who owned Bushy House in London until his death in 1896, but no records were found that proved where the painting passed after 1896. The next sighting of the painting was when it was sold at Christie's in 1980 as a work by the French artist Fleury François Richard, with the title 'A Queen and her Retinue at Worship'.Technical analysis showed that colour anomalies in the painting were the result of pigment degradation, and that parts of the painting had also been restored. After reviewing the show's findings, Professor Stephen Bann, a leading Delaroche expert, concluded that it was the lost original. He also revealed a letter written by Delaroche, in which he registers his dismay at the state of the picture after it had been copied to create a stained glass window for Queen Marie-Amélie, and says that he will have to do considerable work to restore it.Following its authentication, Wilson's widow, Becky, was reported to have decided to keep the painting, but allow it to be displayed at the British Museum in London when a Delaroche exhibition takes place. Subsequently, the painting was sold via Christie's in July 2019 for £33,750.
Castle of Park Fake or Fortune? Bibliothèque nationale de France watercolour provenance Christie's Bushy House Delaroche British Museum Claremont House Bendor Grosvenor Stephen Bann Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours stained glass Revolution of 1848 Queen Marie-Amélie Fleury François Richard Surrey Joseph Nash Cornhill, Aberdeenshire Professor Stephen Bann