Fake or Fortune finds £35 painting is worth £50,000

The picture bought by Robjn Cantus in 2019 for £35 has been verified as a Frances Hodgkins work

A painting bought by an art blogger as part of a pair for £35 has been verified as a work by New Zealand artist Frances Hodgkins and worth up to £50,000.

Robjn Cantus, who lives near Cambridge, bought the picture in 2019 when Hertfordshire County Council sold off its mid-20th Century art collection.

It was originally attributed to Vera Cunningham, but BBC One programme Fake or Fortune has now discovered its true provenance.

Mary Kisler, an art historian from New Zealand and the foremost authority on Hodgkins, told the show: "I emphatically think it is by Frances Hodgkins."

Mr Cantus bought the painting in 2019 at an auction as part of the county council's Pictures for Schools Scheme.

It was one of two in the same lot attributed to Cunningham.

He paid £35 for the pair but wanted only one of them, and the painting that would later turn out to be by Hodgkins was discarded in a barn he used for storage.

When he put a picture it on his blog, someone contacted him to say they thought it was a Hodgkins work, and so he began his quest to verify that – ending up on Fake or Fortune.

As the painting had no provenance, art experts, historians and an archivist all featured in the research.

Presenters Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould uncovered the secrets of the painting

Mr Cantus said the picture might have been broken while on show at a school, and when it was reframed the original labels that on the back of the picture might have lost.

Because of staff changes at the council, when the picture was returned no-one put a new label identifying it as a Hodgkins, so it remained unattributed for years and its value was not spotted.

Who was Frances Hodgkins?

• Born in New Zealand, she left in 1901 and spent the rest of her life in Europe

• A breakthrough in public recognition came in 1929 when her friend and fellow artist Cedric Morris suggested she should be selected for the Seven & Five Society, exhibiting alongside Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Henry Moore

• By the 1940s, her work was being lauded in the British press

• Today, she is little known outside her native New Zealand, where galleries have been "very active in buying and repatriating the works", said Mr Cantus

Source: Art UK

This picture by Frances Hodgkins is typical of her later style, featuring "very loose paintings of items like rusty tractors or farmyards", Robjn Cantus said

Hodgkins expert Ms Kisler studied the painting.

"You can read Robjn's painting as fitting in to a really large number of Hodgkins's works. When you lay those works side-by-side you can see absolutely that Robjn's work fits among them," she said.

Mr Cantus said he was "ecstatic" to hear her verdict.

"I do wonder if this is October Landscape," said Ms Kisler, referring to a painting by Hodgkins that had not been found.

"I think it's a damn good one – I'd love to have it myself."

Art expert Philip Mould, who co-presents the BBC programme with Fiona Bruce, said Ms Kisler's verification was "unquestioningly justifying that valuation of £40,000 to £50,000 but also, as a result of this endorsement, it's a picture that hereon will be seen and admired".

Mr Cantus said he did not intend to sell it, and it was nice to know that it had been "enjoyed by children, seen on walls – that it was toured from school to school".

The painting is now believed to be of an old Roman goldmine painted by Hodgkins when she was staying in Wales at the age of 73.

"The picture has grown on me immensely," Mr Cantus added.

"I don't have any idea where I'm going to put it but I'll find a space somewhere."

It transpired there was another painting on the reverse of the one bought by Robjn Cantus, and he believes they are both by Frances Hodgkins

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said: "It's obviously a bit disappointing to find out that we could have raised more money for local services through the sale of this painting, but we are confident that we took good professional advice on the valuation based on the information available at the time.

"As Fake or Fortune shows, the art market is unpredictable, with experts often having different views on the same piece."