Priceless centuries-old Dickens portrait unearthed at KZN market
A long-lost portrait of the famous British novelist Charles Dickens was found at a market in Pietermaritzburg, and will now be sold for R4-million.
A man who bought an assortment of old trinkets at a market in Pietermaritzburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal could not have known that he was getting one of the British art world's most precious portraits for a steal.
Philip Mould, an art dealer at London's Philip Mould & Company, says he knew there was something special about the painting as soon as it reached his gallery, despite its mouldy appearance.
A 19th-century palm-sized portrait of Charles Dickens, which was lost for nearly two centuries, was found in South Africa and goes on display in London on Thursday https://t.co/N4AdGcUV5X pic.twitter.com/WkidE3LSbQ
— CNN (@CNN) November 21, 2018
The portrait, which was painted by suffragist Margaret Gillies in 1843, captures Charles Dickens, one of the most notable British writers, known for having his eye on the pulse of society at the time. Over the course of seven seatings, Gillies painted the 31-year-old Dickens at a time when he was struggling to keep up with his growing fame. He was writing A Christmas Carol at the time, and did not suspect that it would make him as famous as it did.
The work shows a vibrant writer on the brink of a breakthrough; youthful, anxious, optimistic. Mould says of the 14cm painting: "Dickens was a celebrity, people followed him down the street and so with that dramatic twist of the head she has caught that, she has caught the man that turned heads himself."
It is a rare portrait that seems to capture's the writer's essence.
The portrait, which was authenticated and restored, is now valued at £220,000 (R4-million).
It was briefly displayed at a gallery in 1844, then in 1886 it was officially declared unaccounted for. Now, 174 years after it was first displayed to the public, the portrait will hang at the Charles Dickens Museum.