Fake or Fortune? Catch up, Series 13: 4. Portrait of a Lady

Fake or Fortune?

Series 13: 4. Portrait of a Lady - in Pittsburgh?

In the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Fiona Bruce meets Laura and Pat, who purchased a painting of a young woman grieving over a funerary urn. It cost $200 from an estate auction, and it has been languishing in a closet for several years. Laura has discovered a print by celebrated 18th-century artist Angelica Kauffman, and it's almost identical to their painting.\n\nIn an 1890s biography of Kauffman, Philip Mould discovers that there was once a painting just like Laura's, believed to be missing and described as one of Kauffman's best paintings. He asks: could Laura and Pat have stumbled across a lost treasure?\n\nClues on the back of the picture lead Fiona to investigate a Pittsburgh steel magnate and a historic local art gallery. Her search for information about the woman commemorated in the painting, described as ‘General Stanwix’s daughter’, takes her to Fort Pitt, a British colonial stronghold that grew into the city of Pittsburgh.\n\nAt the Royal Academy in London, where Kauffman was one of just two female artists included in the founding membership in 1768, Philip finds connections between recognised works by Kauffman and Laura's picture.\n\nThe poem included in the painting provides more evidence, linking the picture to famous surgeon John Hunter and his wife Anne, a renowned poet. Can Fiona uncover an unbroken line of provenance, and could the artist's own handwriting provide further clues?\n\nTechnical analysis at the Hamilton Kerr Institute in Cambridge, though, raises worrying questions about the condition of the picture and its pigments, and Kauffman's popularity at the time raises concerns around the prevalence of copies and reproductions.\n\nWill the team persuade the recognised experts on Kauffman that this picture is indeed a lost masterpiece by one of the leading names in 18th-century art?

Source: BBC 1

Most recent episodes of Fake or Fortune?

Fake Or Fortune?

Series 13: 4. Portrait Of A Lady - In Pittsburgh?

In the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Fiona Bruce meets Laura and Pat, who purchased a painting of a young woman grieving over a funerary urn. It cost $200 from an estate auction, and i ...

11-08-2025

BBC 1

All episodes

Fake Or Fortune?

Series 13: 3. A Modern Masterpiece For £35?

Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould investigate a mysterious unsigned landscape that was snapped up at auction for just £35. Could it be a lost work by Frances Hodgkins, the trai ...

10-08-2025

BBC 1

All episodes

Fake Or Fortune?

Series 13: 2. A Tale Of Two Renoirs

Typical Renoir – you wait ages for an undiscovered masterpiece, and then two come along at once. The question is, are they genuine? One of them, both of them, or neither?\ ...

07-08-2025

BBC 1

All episodes

Fake Or Fortune?

Series 13: 1. The Mystery Of Churchill’s Garden

A mysterious inscription, a famous name and a colossal price tag. Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould embark on a high-stakes quest to authenticate a 'lost' painting believed to be the ...

31-07-2025

BBC 1

All episodes

Fake Or Fortune?

Series 9: 4. A King’s Last Supper

The team head to the beautiful island of Anglesey at the northernmost tip of Wales, where Huw Lewis has a sheep farm. Huw frequently spends his evenings scouring the internet f ...

17-04-2025

BBC 1

All episodes

Fake Or Fortune?

Series 9: 3. Landseer

Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould investigate a painting that could be the work of the celebrated artist Sir Edwin Landseer. If it is, they will have rediscovered a much-loved Victor ...

10-04-2025

BBC 1

All episodes

Fake Or Fortune?

Series 9: 2. Gerome

Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould investigate a small oil painting of a man praying in a mosque, a scene filled with meticulously painted and intriguing detail. Its owner, Jon Swihar ...

03-04-2025

BBC 1

All episodes

Fake Or Fortune?

Series 9: Episode 1

Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould head to the beautiful Norfolk countryside on the trail of one of the 20th century’s greatest artists, Henry Moore. They are investigating an i ...

27-03-2025

BBC 1

All episodes

Fake Or Fortune?

Series 12: 4. Corot

Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould investigate a lovely landscape painting, purported to be by one of the forefathers of impressionism and one of the most important artists of the 19t ...

15-01-2025

BBC 1

All episodes

Fake Or Fortune?

Series 12: 3. Music Memorabilia

The team take on an entertaining new challenge when they plunge into the fast-growing market for rock music memorabilia. Can they prove that a curious silver guitar once belonge ...

09-01-2025

BBC 1

All episodes