0:00:02 > 0:00:0518 million. 500,000. 19 million...
0:00:05 > 0:00:09The art world. A place of outrageous fortune...
0:00:09 > 0:00:11Selling, at 95 million.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14..but beneath the surface lurks danger.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16I probably turned out about 200 fakes,
0:00:16 > 0:00:18over a six, seven year period.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21You're committing fraud on a grand scale.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25International art dealer Philip Mould uncovers sleepers -
0:00:25 > 0:00:27pictures with a secret past.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30Now he's bringing his detective skills
0:00:30 > 0:00:33to solve more mysteries locked in paint.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35In the past we looked at pictures,
0:00:35 > 0:00:37now almost you can look through them.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40I'm Fiona Bruce. As a journalist, I'm used to hunting for facts.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44We're teaming up for a new series of investigations.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48In this episode we explore a group of paintings
0:00:48 > 0:00:51once thought to be by Britain's greatest landscape painter -
0:00:51 > 0:00:53Turner.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56For over 60 years they've been condemned as fakes.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00"We cannot show those pictures on our walls again."
0:01:01 > 0:01:02It's a pretty harsh letter.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07We work with the world's leading Turner experts
0:01:07 > 0:01:08to try and clear their name.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12My guess is that there's been a miscarriage of justice, somehow.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15And I would like to try and prove it.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17This has to be the spot. I'm convinced.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20But we find opinions in the art world are hard to change.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24We're going to need the man who actually said, "No," to say, "Yes."
0:01:24 > 0:01:28Now, in the art world, that's a big ask.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50We're on our way to Wales to see a group of important paintings
0:01:50 > 0:01:52with a bad reputation.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57Nearly 60 years ago, they were accused of being fakes.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00But Philip thinks a mistake may have been made.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04So you think, even though these paintings have been branded fakes,
0:02:04 > 0:02:08the people who sat in judgement upon them may have got it wrong?
0:02:08 > 0:02:10I think it's quite possible.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13And the terrible thing about the art world is,
0:02:13 > 0:02:15once something has been branded a fake,
0:02:15 > 0:02:18it can act like a sort of death sentence.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21I mean, the picture can be tainted thereafter.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24And there's a lot at stake, isn't there?
0:02:24 > 0:02:26There's a huge amount at stake.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30Potentially, we're talking about one of the most exciting artists at work
0:02:30 > 0:02:32in the whole history of British painting.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34We're talking about Turner.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38Joseph Mallord William Turner
0:02:38 > 0:02:41is the master of British landscape painting.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44He's one of the nation's most celebrated artists.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48The man who created The Fighting Temereire.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51The paintings we've come to investigate
0:02:51 > 0:02:55were once hailed as genuine works by Turner's hand.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58They had pride of place on the walls
0:02:58 > 0:03:01of the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05The crowning glory of an extraordinary collection
0:03:05 > 0:03:08amassed by two Welsh sisters with a taste for great art.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12In the early years of the 20th Century,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Gwendoline and Margaret Davies spent much of their vast fortune
0:03:16 > 0:03:22buying the cream of European art as a gift to the people of Wales.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Their hope was to assemble a national collection
0:03:27 > 0:03:30that would rank amongst the finest in the world.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32This is a fabulous collection.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36I mean, we've got Monet, Renoir, Cezanne,
0:03:36 > 0:03:38some of the greatest names in art.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40It was a hugely generous bequest.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43I mean, it put art in Wales really on the map
0:03:43 > 0:03:46and they spent more money on Turner than any other artist.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50But can you imagine how depressing it would be
0:03:50 > 0:03:53to be told that the stars of your collection were fakes?
0:03:53 > 0:03:56Were paintings not worthy to hang on these walls?
0:03:58 > 0:04:01When Gwendoline Davies died in 1951
0:04:01 > 0:04:04her paintings were received here with great excitement.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09But, within months, the prized Turners were called into question.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12Margate Jetty,
0:04:12 > 0:04:14Off Margate
0:04:14 > 0:04:18and Beacon Light have left a stain on the Davies Sisters' legacy.
0:04:18 > 0:04:23Curator Beth McIntyre hopes we can help restore their good name.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26So, these are the "Turners of shame"?
0:04:26 > 0:04:30Yes, these are the Turners which were looked at in 1956
0:04:30 > 0:04:33and were deemed to be wrong or not by Turner
0:04:33 > 0:04:36and were taken off display at that time.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40And have sort of lain here, languishing and unloved?
0:04:40 > 0:04:43Yeah, some of them haven't been shown to the public since that time.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46So, how did this happen? Presumably, when the paintings
0:04:46 > 0:04:48arrived at the museum, they must have been thrilled.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52Oh, they were absolutely thrilled. These were the first oil paintings
0:04:52 > 0:04:54to go on the wall by Turner, but unfortunately,
0:04:54 > 0:04:58soon after they arrived, people started to ask questions.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00And the museum felt that they had look at it further.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02They had to investigate it.
0:05:02 > 0:05:03So, what went wrong?
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Well, they were rejected really for two reasons.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08Firstly there were issues with their provenance.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11Yeah. I mean, provenance can make or break a picture.
0:05:11 > 0:05:12I've seen that happen.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15A painting's got to work on paper, as it were.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17You've got to be able to follow it through, preferably,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21from the moment it was painted to today. That can be very persuasive.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24- What, through the various owners? - Correct.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Or dissuasive, if you've got great gaps.
0:05:27 > 0:05:28And what was the second ground?
0:05:28 > 0:05:31The second ground was really how they looked,
0:05:31 > 0:05:33which is all down to connoisseurship.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36So, they decided to get the experts together
0:05:36 > 0:05:39and look at them side-by-side other works by Turner
0:05:39 > 0:05:41and make decisions on them.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44Were they unanimous that they were not Turners? Did they all agree?
0:05:44 > 0:05:47They all agreed that they weren't Turners.
0:05:47 > 0:05:48What a blow! My goodness.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51Yes, absolutely. A dreadful blow for the museum,
0:05:51 > 0:05:53but also for the Davies family.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57Because, of course, Margaret Davies was still alive at that time.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00So she had to receive the news herself.
0:06:00 > 0:06:01Yes. So, having given them, to be told,
0:06:01 > 0:06:05"No thanks. they're fakes or they're copies."
0:06:05 > 0:06:07It feels, at least, ungrateful.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10This is a case where national treasures are at stake,
0:06:10 > 0:06:14and a generous family legacy has been spurned.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17The Davies sisters were unlikely art collectors.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19Shy and deeply religious,
0:06:19 > 0:06:22they never married and led a puritanical existence,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25choosing instead to devote their fortune
0:06:25 > 0:06:27to improve the lives of others.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31They used their wealth to transform the cultural life of Wales.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35Margaret was nearly 80 when she found out
0:06:35 > 0:06:37that her sister's Turners had been rejected.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40I'm meeting their closest descendant,
0:06:40 > 0:06:42Lord David Davies and his wife Bea,
0:06:42 > 0:06:45to see how Margaret took the news.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47- Hello.- Hello.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Fiona, nice to meet you. Hi there, Lord Davies.
0:06:49 > 0:06:50Hello, very nice to see you.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53I'm having a closer look at the rejected paintings,
0:06:53 > 0:06:58to try and get a clearer view of why they've been condemned.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01I've got here the letter that was written to your Great Aunt Margaret
0:07:01 > 0:07:04on the 31st of January, 1956,
0:07:04 > 0:07:06breaking the news to her.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09It says, "Dear Miss Davies, We all agree that, whereas
0:07:09 > 0:07:14"The Morning After The Wreck and The Morning After The Storm were all right,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17"others are either the work of imitators,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20"or workings-up by some other artist
0:07:20 > 0:07:22"of rudimentary beginnings by Turner,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26"so complete as to render them pictures by somebody else."
0:07:26 > 0:07:29So, taking this central picture, Beacon Light.
0:07:29 > 0:07:34The 1956 committee said that this picture was started by Turner
0:07:34 > 0:07:36it was a rudimentary beginning by the artist
0:07:36 > 0:07:38and then finished by another hand.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42But I've been looking at it and, we need to do tests,
0:07:42 > 0:07:45but this doesn't feel like a painting that is begun with one hand
0:07:45 > 0:07:49and then finished with another. You can always tell that.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51There's a sort of feeling of a Chinese whisper.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53It starts in one way and then sort of oddly changes
0:07:53 > 0:07:56as your eye passes over the surface.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59"This has been a great blow to us,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02"and I am afraid it cannot fail to be one to you, too.
0:08:02 > 0:08:08"But, of course, we cannot show those pictures on our walls again."
0:08:09 > 0:08:10What do you make of that?
0:08:10 > 0:08:13Pretty hard letter to receive.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15How do you think Margaret would have felt about that?
0:08:15 > 0:08:17I think she'd be pretty devastated.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19It's a pretty harsh letter, actually.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23Now, they felt about this picture here
0:08:23 > 0:08:25that it was almost certainly by an imitator,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28a forger, as it were, trying to do a Turner.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31And I think probably what put them off most was the size.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36It's unusually small, particularly for the broad way it's painted.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38Now, a theory that's been put forward,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41and I reckon there's a lot of truth of this,
0:08:41 > 0:08:45it may well be part of a larger picture
0:08:45 > 0:08:47and this is a fragment.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50There are tests that can be done in order to establish
0:08:50 > 0:08:52whether the painting was once bigger.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55"Miss Davies has asked me
0:08:55 > 0:08:57"to acknowledge your letter of yesterday's date.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01"I need hardly tell you how shocked she is to have this news.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06"It does look as if someone has pulled off a fast one."
0:09:06 > 0:09:08That would have really upset Margaret.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11- What, the dishonesty of it? - Yes, indeed.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15And they'd taken such care over the collecting of their paintings.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20My guess is there has been a miscarriage of justice somehow
0:09:20 > 0:09:22and I would like to try and prove it.
0:09:22 > 0:09:24We must make a cracking case for the defence.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27It's 60 years on, we must approach this with fresh eyes.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30I feel these have been suffering from
0:09:30 > 0:09:32a jaundiced, old fashioned view.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Advances in modern technology mean we can now look at paintings
0:09:39 > 0:09:42in ways they've never been seen before.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45Forensic investigation can reveal much
0:09:45 > 0:09:49to prove whether a work is genuine or fake.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54We've asked Senior Conservator Adam Webster
0:09:54 > 0:09:57to begin scientific analysis of the rejected Turners.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01He's taking microscopic fragments of paint
0:10:01 > 0:10:03from the edges of the works
0:10:03 > 0:10:06which can be tested to discover how they were painted
0:10:06 > 0:10:08and with what materials.
0:10:08 > 0:10:13The samples are so tiny that damage to our paintings is negligible.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18Then we can try and cross-match the results with genuine Turners.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22I have to say, I find this really exciting.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25I mean, we're going to be subjecting these pictures
0:10:25 > 0:10:28to the sort of physical analysis that they've never had.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31I mean, this is a real first.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35It is, this is something that didn't happen in the 1956 committee.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37Although they consulted conservators,
0:10:37 > 0:10:39it was only using microscopes,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43not doing this kind of scientific analysis we're able to do today.
0:10:43 > 0:10:49So, this is really like a post-mortem, an autopsy.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52It's a process that lets us look beneath the surface.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54So, what the naked eye can't see,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57what paints were used, it will give us a detailed look
0:10:57 > 0:10:59at what the painting is actually made of.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02And then, of course, we can compare those results
0:11:02 > 0:11:06with paintings actually by Turner, to see if they match or not.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11There is a chilling aspect to all of this.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15If they find in these paintings a compound,
0:11:15 > 0:11:18a chemical, that wasn't around, that wasn't invented
0:11:18 > 0:11:21during Turner's lifetime
0:11:21 > 0:11:24then the attribution of these pictures to Turner
0:11:24 > 0:11:26is dead in the water.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29Technical analysis of a painting
0:11:29 > 0:11:32is a meticulous process which can take weeks.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34So, with three pictures to investigate,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37Adam has his work cut out.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41'Back at Philip's gallery in London,
0:11:41 > 0:11:44'we're meeting head of research Dr Bendor Grosvenor.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48'If there are clues which will prove whether a work of art is genuine,
0:11:48 > 0:11:50'he's the man to find them.'
0:11:50 > 0:11:53I assume that Turner, being so popular an artist,
0:11:53 > 0:11:57must be much copied and there must be a lot of fakes out there as well?
0:11:57 > 0:11:58I reckon we probably see
0:11:58 > 0:12:00at least two dodgy Turners a week coming up for sale.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03I mean, a Turner is a real prize.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06He's an artist that people will fake.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08So you're sticking your neck out here, then?
0:12:08 > 0:12:11But I wouldn't do unless I thought there was a really high chance
0:12:11 > 0:12:13that these paintings are right.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15Take, for example, Off Margate there.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19If we can prove that this is by the artist himself,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22that's, what, £500,000?
0:12:22 > 0:12:24And then there's Margate Jetty,
0:12:24 > 0:12:25Similar sort of story.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Just put the magic name Turner there
0:12:28 > 0:12:31and that becomes a painting of similar value.
0:12:31 > 0:12:36But Beacon Light, I mean this is such a monumental image.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39- We're talking, what, £10-15 million?- Wow!
0:12:39 > 0:12:43I know provenance has been an issue, hasn't it, with these paintings?
0:12:43 > 0:12:45All three of these pictures are associated
0:12:45 > 0:12:48with a rather controversial aspect of Turner's life.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50At a time when he was involved in a secret relationship
0:12:50 > 0:12:52which shocked the art world.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55They're all thought to have belonged to his secret mistress,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58Mrs Sophia Caroline Booth.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00She was the landlady of a boarding house in Margate,
0:13:00 > 0:13:02which Turner used to go and stay at.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05Someone's rather helpfully marked the house with an 'x'
0:13:05 > 0:13:08in this nice old photograph of Margate.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11Now, although Turner spent 18 years of his life with her,
0:13:11 > 0:13:13nobody knew about it till after he died
0:13:13 > 0:13:16and there was a great scandal in the art world.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18And, of course, the Royal Academy was
0:13:18 > 0:13:20the ultimate badge of respectability.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22And the idea of someone like Turner,
0:13:22 > 0:13:25who was a sort of towering figure within that,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28having a bit on the side just didn't fit.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32Quite impressive, having a bit on the side in secret for 18 years, I have to say.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35And he then, presumably, gave these paintings to Mrs Booth?
0:13:35 > 0:13:38Well, that's certainly what the Davies sisters thought.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41When they bought these pictures, they bought them as part of a set
0:13:41 > 0:13:45which they believed had hung in Turners house in London,
0:13:45 > 0:13:49on the embankment in Chelsea, which he had shared with Mrs Booth.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52But the 1956 committee viewed this whole provenance source
0:13:52 > 0:13:54with great suspicion and distaste.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57So we need to get to the bottom, then,
0:13:57 > 0:14:00of what that suspicion was, exactly,
0:14:00 > 0:14:03around that whole Mrs Booth provenance issue?
0:14:15 > 0:14:19Our investigation has led us to the North Kent coast, to Margate,
0:14:19 > 0:14:21on the trail of Turner and Mrs Booth.
0:14:24 > 0:14:25Turner once said,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28"The skies over Thanet are the loveliest in all Europe."
0:14:33 > 0:14:37Though he travelled all over Britain and the Continent,
0:14:37 > 0:14:39he returned here time and time again
0:14:39 > 0:14:43to paint the light, the sky and the sea.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50Mrs Booth's guest house on the harbour
0:14:50 > 0:14:52became a second home for Turner.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55It stood right at the end of the jetty, looking out to sea.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01We're standing where Mrs Booth's guest house stood
0:15:01 > 0:15:06and where Turner and Mrs Booth must have battled the winds, as we are.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09Look, you can see where Jarvis's Landing Place
0:15:09 > 0:15:12or Jarvis's Jetty for short pushed out into the sea.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14And that's where the steamers would come
0:15:14 > 0:15:17and where the people would get off and make their way into Margate.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20And here we have Margate Jetty.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22And, topographically, that's spot on.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25But what about this, then?
0:15:25 > 0:15:29Off Margate. How does that look standing here in this spot?
0:15:29 > 0:15:31Well, there again, you can see it, a tower,
0:15:31 > 0:15:34which is in fact a lighthouse.
0:15:34 > 0:15:35I give you the lighthouse.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38And there, on the left, the clock tower.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40This is the view that Turner encountered.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42Cos Turner wouldn't have far to go, would he?
0:15:42 > 0:15:45He could either paint it from Mrs Booth's window
0:15:45 > 0:15:47or just step outside with his easel.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51And, look, who knows, maybe the same squally weather we're having now?
0:15:51 > 0:15:55If you can link a picture back to the artist
0:15:55 > 0:15:58and what he personally encountered,
0:15:58 > 0:16:00it makes it so much more convincing
0:16:00 > 0:16:03when you're trying to argue for authenticity.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07But the problem picture is Beacon Light,
0:16:07 > 0:16:09because it's been identified as a picture painted
0:16:09 > 0:16:11in the Isle of Wight.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13And my feeling is that it's quite possibly
0:16:13 > 0:16:16a painting done around here.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18The question is, though, where?
0:16:19 > 0:16:22I suspect, but I need to prove,
0:16:22 > 0:16:24that Turner painted all the rejected works
0:16:24 > 0:16:29around the Kent coastline in his later years, during the 1840s.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32Here in Margate, the newly built Turner Contemporary Gallery
0:16:32 > 0:16:36has been showing some of the artist's most evocative,
0:16:36 > 0:16:37yet controversial works,
0:16:37 > 0:16:41painted in the final years of his career.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45These paintings were so different in style from his early works
0:16:45 > 0:16:48that critics thought Turner had lost his mind.
0:16:48 > 0:16:53Many lay uncatalogued and ignored for over a century after his death
0:16:53 > 0:16:57and this may give us a clue as to why our paintings were rejected.
0:16:57 > 0:17:02All these Turners were painted between 1835 and 1845,
0:17:02 > 0:17:06about the same time that the Davies Sister pictures
0:17:06 > 0:17:08were supposed to have been painted.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10And what I'd love to do is get really close
0:17:10 > 0:17:13with a comparison here, see the techniques.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16The thing that is so surprising about them,
0:17:16 > 0:17:20I mean, Turner was painting these, what, in the early Victorian years.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22And the paintings then were all,
0:17:22 > 0:17:25you know, they are painted of things that look as they should look.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28They're very figurative they're very literal, aren't they?
0:17:28 > 0:17:30And these are madly impressionistic, aren't they?
0:17:30 > 0:17:32They were shocking at the time.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34I mean, this was cutting edge stuff
0:17:34 > 0:17:36and some people just didn't understand it.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39Take this picture here, The Snowstorm.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43One critic in particular said it was like soapsuds and whitewash.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45Absolutely mortified Turner.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48But it is the most remarkable painting.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50It's kind of nature unleashed, isn't it?
0:17:50 > 0:17:53And you feel you're sort of sucked into the vortex of it.
0:17:54 > 0:17:55You can almost feel it.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58This a portrait of nature at its most raw.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01I mean, when you compare how Turner handled this scene,
0:18:01 > 0:18:03you know, a ship in distress,
0:18:03 > 0:18:08compared to other artists of the period, it's mind-blowing.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12But I have to say, put Beacon Light next to The Snowstorm
0:18:12 > 0:18:15and all sorts of comparisons begin to become obvious.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18That explosion of light, the bright white,
0:18:18 > 0:18:21that seems to suffuse the picture in both paintings.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23You feel that, you sense that.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25So, on stylistic grounds,
0:18:25 > 0:18:28you're pretty sure Beacon Light is a Turner, on those grounds alone?
0:18:28 > 0:18:34We've got further to go, but this is a very comfortable comparison.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41I've been doing some digging into Turner's relationship with Mrs Booth.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43Records tell us she was around 35
0:18:43 > 0:18:46and twice widowed when she met Turner.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49He was 20 years older, and at the height of his fame.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51He'd stay here incognito,
0:18:51 > 0:18:54assuming the name Mr Booth.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Margate was a far cry from the respectable London art scene,
0:18:58 > 0:19:03where the hoi polloi came to get up to things they perhaps shouldn't.
0:19:03 > 0:19:05It was a place that suited Turner.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07As the son of a Covent Garden barber,
0:19:07 > 0:19:10he was never quite comfortable in high society.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14But I've discovered Turner's secret life didn't sit well
0:19:14 > 0:19:17with the more straight laced set at the Royal Academy.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21Now, this is written by Charles Turner - no relation -
0:19:21 > 0:19:25who was one of Turner's engravers.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28Now he's a bit miffed because even though he knew Turner for 50 years
0:19:28 > 0:19:30he knew nothing about Mrs Booth.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33And he went to meet her after Turner had died.
0:19:33 > 0:19:38He says, "Went to see Mrs Booth, the female Mr Turner resided with.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41"Exactly like a fat cook, and not a well-educated woman.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43"Everyone to their taste!!!"
0:19:43 > 0:19:44Three exclamation marks.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47"What a pity so great a man in talent
0:19:47 > 0:19:50"should not have made a more ladylike choice.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53"He could not have introduced her to his friends."
0:19:53 > 0:19:57Now, already, you get the sense that this is clearly not
0:19:57 > 0:19:59a flattering portrait of Mrs Booth.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01He wholeheartedly disapproves of her
0:20:01 > 0:20:05and is very snobbish and snooty about her.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09Now, this is written in the 1890s, so some years after Turner died.
0:20:10 > 0:20:11Listen to this.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13"His errors," that is Turner's errors,
0:20:13 > 0:20:15"appear more coarse and gross,
0:20:15 > 0:20:21"give more acute pain to our sense of propriety because they seem more degrading.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24"In Turner's conduct, in this respect, there were two offences,
0:20:24 > 0:20:27"one against morality and the other against good taste."
0:20:27 > 0:20:30Now that attitude to Mrs Booth and to Turner
0:20:30 > 0:20:32seems to have hung around like a bad smell
0:20:32 > 0:20:38even, I would say, possibly as far as the committee in 1956
0:20:38 > 0:20:41and the association of those paintings with Mrs Booth
0:20:41 > 0:20:44may well have tainted them, in their minds,
0:20:44 > 0:20:49far from giving them a kind of genuine ownership, may well have actually had the reverse effect.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54So we know what the scholars of the past thought of our paintings
0:20:54 > 0:20:57but what about the scholars of today?
0:20:57 > 0:21:00To find out we've come to Tate Britain,
0:21:00 > 0:21:02home of the Turner Bequest.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04Turner declared that on his death
0:21:04 > 0:21:08all his unsold works should be given to the nation.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12300 oils and 30,000 watercolours and sketches
0:21:12 > 0:21:14from a career spanning six decades.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20We're meeting two Turner authorities who've studied these works meticulously,
0:21:20 > 0:21:25but they hold opposing views about the Davies sisters' paintings.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30Martin Butlin is former Keeper of the Historic British Collection here at the Tate.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33He's been immersed in the artist's work for half a century.
0:21:33 > 0:21:39Martin co-wrote the Catalogue Raisonne which lists all known Turner works.
0:21:39 > 0:21:44But it describes the paintings owned by the Davies sisters as fakes.
0:21:44 > 0:21:49His opinion is going to be vital if we're going to overturn that ruling.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51Martin, when it comes to the paintings
0:21:51 > 0:21:54that belong to Gwendoline Davies, you've got a problem, with those?
0:21:54 > 0:21:55Yes.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59In the end it just came down to the fact we didn't think they were good enough
0:21:59 > 0:22:04and didn't look quite like what we thought a Turner should look like.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06Ian Warrell is a senior curator
0:22:06 > 0:22:09who's published widely on the artist.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13Having been a Turner specialist for nearly 30 years
0:22:13 > 0:22:16he also knows how to spot the genuine article.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20Ian's in the process of re-examining some questioned Turners
0:22:20 > 0:22:22for a forthcoming exhibition.
0:22:22 > 0:22:27It was he who brought the rejected paintings to our attention.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29These pictures have been rejected by scholars
0:22:29 > 0:22:31on a stylistic grounds,
0:22:31 > 0:22:33what do you think?
0:22:33 > 0:22:35For me, they do look like genuine Turners.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38They're the kind of sketches he was making in Margate in the 1840s
0:22:38 > 0:22:41and they fit very logically into the kinds of things
0:22:41 > 0:22:42we have in the Turner Bequest.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46Is part of the problem with these paintings where they came from?
0:22:46 > 0:22:48The fact that these may have belonged to Mrs Booth?
0:22:48 > 0:22:51I think it made people more suspicious.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53So would you describe these pictures
0:22:53 > 0:22:56as having been perceived as murky Turners then?
0:22:56 > 0:23:00I think they would always have been in the sort of shadows, if you like.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02They're pictures that people,
0:23:02 > 0:23:04because of the Margate and the Mrs Booth connection
0:23:04 > 0:23:07didn't feel confident in asserting were genuine
0:23:07 > 0:23:09and couldn't necessarily see
0:23:09 > 0:23:11how they fitted into the rest of his career.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15Is there some idea that Mrs Booth should never have had these paintings?
0:23:15 > 0:23:17In a way, she should not have had them
0:23:17 > 0:23:20because he wanted all his paintings to go to the nation.
0:23:20 > 0:23:21If he wanted her to have paintings,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24actually positively wanted her to have paintings,
0:23:24 > 0:23:26he should have put it in his will.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31It's a delicate point because his will doesn't go into great detail,
0:23:31 > 0:23:35so exactly what Turner was leaving to the nation is a little imprecise.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39All the works that Turner had in his possession when he died
0:23:39 > 0:23:42should have come to the nation.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44That, in a way, was the first moral blow perhaps. The first...
0:23:44 > 0:23:48In what way? You think she might have stolen them?
0:23:48 > 0:23:52I think she may have, as it were, appropriated them,
0:23:52 > 0:23:53or regarded them as hers.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56But that doesn't make them any less by Turner?
0:23:56 > 0:23:57No, no, it doesn't,
0:23:57 > 0:23:59but it's always there in the back of your mind.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03When the bequest was eventually resolved,
0:24:03 > 0:24:08what they agreed was that it would be the contents of the main studio in the centre of London
0:24:08 > 0:24:09that became national property.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13So it is inevitable that things that were on Mrs Booth's own property,
0:24:13 > 0:24:15in her home, that she could assume that they were hers.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19So there isn't actually a kind of definite moment when Turner gives them to her
0:24:19 > 0:24:21but I don't think you could either say that she stole them.
0:24:21 > 0:24:27Why is there this problem with these paintings having come from Mrs Booth?
0:24:27 > 0:24:30Well, I think it has in some way tainted them,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33- just by association. - So how has it tainted them then?
0:24:33 > 0:24:38Well, just that it's related to an indecent relationship
0:24:38 > 0:24:39and it rubbed off.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43Martin was saying very clearly
0:24:43 > 0:24:46he had a problem first and foremost with the way the paintings looked,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49but in addition to that it was quite clear
0:24:49 > 0:24:53that the illicit relationship between Mrs Booth and Turner
0:24:53 > 0:24:55had tainted the paintings.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00There has to be a less subjective way of looking at these paintings, there just has to be.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04We need to take a much more clear-headed view
0:25:04 > 0:25:07of what these paintings are, and where they've come from.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10Back at the National Museum of Wales
0:25:10 > 0:25:14Adam is using imaging techniques to see through the layers of paint
0:25:14 > 0:25:17in the hope that he might reveal more clues that could tell us
0:25:17 > 0:25:19whether the rejected works are genuine.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24It's been suspected that Margate Jetty was once part of a larger painting.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29X-Ray photography can detect whether the canvas has been cut down.
0:25:30 > 0:25:35Infra-red imagining can reveal underlying layers of paint,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38under drawing or changes of mind by the artist.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44We're meeting at my gallery to interpret Adam's findings.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49Now Adam has made some fascinating discoveries
0:25:49 > 0:25:52using the various imaging techniques on the rejected paintings.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55Got here an X-ray of Margate Jetty
0:25:55 > 0:25:58and he's proved that it was cut down on all four sides,
0:25:58 > 0:26:00which means, as we suspected,
0:26:00 > 0:26:02that it was once part of a much larger painting.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04That is real progress,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06because I've always had a problem with this format,
0:26:06 > 0:26:08it hasn't quite worked,
0:26:08 > 0:26:11the strokes are too broad for something on that small scale.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13That would explain it!
0:26:13 > 0:26:15And that would explain, presumably,
0:26:15 > 0:26:18why the committee back in 1956 rejected it.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20Yeah, it didn't work as a composition.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22But actually we can take this a stage further
0:26:22 > 0:26:26and we can imagine what it might have looked like because...
0:26:26 > 0:26:28we've got a watercolour here,
0:26:28 > 0:26:29by Turner, of the same scene,
0:26:29 > 0:26:31also done in the 1840s
0:26:31 > 0:26:35and I've had a bit of a fiddle around on the Photoshop and look.
0:26:35 > 0:26:36Brilliant,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39so that water colour's almost like a preparation for the oil painting.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41That is just brilliant.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43Thing is though, why would anyone want
0:26:43 > 0:26:45to cut down a painting by Turner?
0:26:45 > 0:26:47It's a really good point,
0:26:47 > 0:26:49but people did cut down pictures.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52I mean, that might have been cut down because it was damaged,
0:26:52 > 0:26:54or possibly someone wanted to create two Turners out of one.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56I mean, it's happened before.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59We see cut down pictures like that quite often, unfortunately.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01But let me show you a more exciting discovery
0:27:01 > 0:27:06because Adam has done an infra-red image of Beacon Light.
0:27:07 > 0:27:08And I can show that to you here.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12What are we supposed to be seeing there?
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Hang on, hang on. It's looming up, there we go.
0:27:15 > 0:27:20Oh, I see. So that's what, a tower, a lighthouse?
0:27:20 > 0:27:22A tower, a lighthouse, quite possibly.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26I think it'll make more sense if I drop it into the painting like this.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29- Oh, it couldn't be clearer. - Look at that!
0:27:29 > 0:27:31Yeah. So if Turner had painted Beacon Light
0:27:31 > 0:27:34he originally had it with a lighthouse in the top of the cliff
0:27:34 > 0:27:36then he changed his mind and painted it out.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39But where I think this is going to be really helpful
0:27:39 > 0:27:43is in actually helping us find out where Beacon Light was painted.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45Do you know, that could be of real benefit
0:27:45 > 0:27:47because I've always had a problem.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50All the other pictures are painted around Margate, Deal, you know,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53areas within the vicinity.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55But this was identified,
0:27:55 > 0:27:59by a dealer I believe, as a view of the Isle of Wight.
0:27:59 > 0:28:00Absolutely.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02When the Davies sisters bought it,
0:28:02 > 0:28:06it was described as Beacon Fire The Needles.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10Now the Needles are those enormous cliffs at the end of the Isle of Wight
0:28:10 > 0:28:13and if I drop in Beacon Light next to it,
0:28:13 > 0:28:15you can see for the same scene, what do you think?
0:28:15 > 0:28:19The cliff is a completely different shape, isn't it?
0:28:19 > 0:28:21Yeah, and it also can't be there because it just doesn't fit
0:28:21 > 0:28:23with that period of Turner's life,
0:28:23 > 0:28:27cos we know in the late 1820s he went to the Isle of Wight
0:28:27 > 0:28:30and his style was very different then,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33it was far more figurative, far more readable.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36You know, whereas Beacon Light is very different.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39It's consistent with the work he was producing in the 1840s,
0:28:39 > 0:28:41far more impressionistic and wild.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45So when the committee looked at this painting, back in 1956,
0:28:45 > 0:28:48they will have assumed it was from the Isle of Wight,
0:28:48 > 0:28:50from the earlier period of Turner's works,
0:28:50 > 0:28:52so to them it will have looked all wrong.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55Yeah. It will be yet another reason to reject it, I think.
0:28:55 > 0:28:56Now I agree with Philip,
0:28:56 > 0:28:59I think this picture Beacon Light makes much more sense
0:28:59 > 0:29:01if it's painted around Margate in the 1840s,
0:29:01 > 0:29:04and for what it's worth I went to school in that area.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07In fact I used to do geography on those very beaches, in the rain,
0:29:07 > 0:29:11and I reckon with this extra little clue now, the second lighthouse,
0:29:11 > 0:29:15I've got some ideas as to where this might actually have been painted.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21Bendor and I are heading to the Kent coast
0:29:21 > 0:29:24to see if we can find the view depicted in Beacon Light.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29If we can tie its location to other works painted by Turner
0:29:29 > 0:29:31when he was living in the area with Mrs Booth,
0:29:31 > 0:29:35our case will be greatly strengthened.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37Now I've got an old shipping map here,
0:29:37 > 0:29:41because if Turner painted Beacon Light around the Thanet coastline,
0:29:41 > 0:29:43there's really only two places it could have been.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45There's a lighthouse here at North Foreland,
0:29:45 > 0:29:47but the topography of the cliffs doesn't work,
0:29:47 > 0:29:49there's only one lighthouse,
0:29:49 > 0:29:51or South Foreland where we are now,
0:29:51 > 0:29:53where we've got much better cliffs
0:29:53 > 0:29:55and crucially we've got two lighthouses.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58Ah, just as we've seen in Beacon Light, in the picture itself.
0:29:58 > 0:29:59- Yeah.- One hidden, the other not.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02Absolutely. So we've got the main light behind us,
0:30:02 > 0:30:03which is called the High Light,
0:30:03 > 0:30:06and then down there at the edge of the cliff
0:30:06 > 0:30:08there's another light called the Lower Light
0:30:08 > 0:30:11and the reason behind having two is that on these treacherous seas
0:30:11 > 0:30:13near the Goodwin Sands,
0:30:13 > 0:30:15that ships would have to line both lights up
0:30:15 > 0:30:16and then they would know they were safe.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19OK, so, we need to find the viewpoint
0:30:19 > 0:30:21of this scene that Turner chose.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24Yeah, well, it involves a bit of a hike down there.
0:30:24 > 0:30:25No problem.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34The two lights of South Foreland had been painted by Turner before.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38Earlier in his career in 1827
0:30:38 > 0:30:41he depicted them standing high on top of the cliffs,
0:30:41 > 0:30:44from the vantage point of a boat on the stormy sea.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49But are the white cliffs of South Foreland
0:30:49 > 0:30:53the same ones we think Turner painted in Beacon Light?
0:30:57 > 0:30:59Can't you just slow down a bit?
0:30:59 > 0:31:00Come on, keep up.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03Turner would have painted this in a hurry, we can't hang around.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06You're destroying my shoes.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10Yeah, I think next time you need to come...
0:31:10 > 0:31:11perhaps not in a suit.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15At last, our efforts are rewarded.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18So what do you think?
0:31:18 > 0:31:21I can see exactly what you mean.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23The cliffs follow the angle exactly of the picture.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27Yep. This has to be the spot, I'm convinced.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30We've got the two light houses, the one Turner painted out at the top,
0:31:30 > 0:31:32which today is obscured by all those trees
0:31:32 > 0:31:34which weren't there when Turner was painting.
0:31:34 > 0:31:36And the second lighthouse here,
0:31:36 > 0:31:39flaming a light which today is powered by a lamp,
0:31:39 > 0:31:42but in Turner's time would have been a flame.
0:31:42 > 0:31:43And the other thing,
0:31:43 > 0:31:47this is exactly the sort of place you could imagine Turner standing
0:31:47 > 0:31:49and he's got all the drama around him.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51He's got the sea on the left, he's got that,
0:31:51 > 0:31:53that great fin of a cliff pushing out,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57but more than that, this shows that Beacon Light is here,
0:31:57 > 0:31:58it's not the Isle of Wight.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01This pins it to this place,
0:32:01 > 0:32:04when Turner was living in the area with Mrs Booth.
0:32:05 > 0:32:06We've cracked it.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10Our investigation is proving there are strong links between
0:32:10 > 0:32:12our paintings and Turner,
0:32:12 > 0:32:15so why has the art world turned its back on them?
0:32:16 > 0:32:19Back in London, in the archives of the Tate gallery,
0:32:19 > 0:32:22Bendor has been delving into a side of the artist
0:32:22 > 0:32:24that was hidden for decades.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27He's warned me to be prepared for a bit of a shock.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30These are some of the 300 of Turner's own sketchbooks
0:32:30 > 0:32:31we have here in the Tate,
0:32:31 > 0:32:33and I've assembled some of them together
0:32:33 > 0:32:37just to give an idea of what some people call the dark side of Turner,
0:32:37 > 0:32:42and what I'm referring to basically is what was called his sordid and sensuous nature.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44Oh!
0:32:44 > 0:32:49So, shall I start with some of the less rude drawings, shall we call them?
0:32:49 > 0:32:51So we're going to be looking at some naughty pictures
0:32:51 > 0:32:53is this what you're trying to tell me?
0:32:53 > 0:32:55I suppose it's called erotica, really, isn't it?
0:32:55 > 0:32:57So this is a lovely little sketchbook
0:32:57 > 0:32:59from his trip to Switzerland
0:32:59 > 0:33:02and on the first page there we've got two figures in bed
0:33:02 > 0:33:04which, I don't know, is that a man or a woman?
0:33:04 > 0:33:06Looks like two women to me.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08They've definitely been...
0:33:08 > 0:33:10Clearly been very busy.
0:33:10 > 0:33:11So, Turner was just...
0:33:11 > 0:33:15How extraordinary, I thought he just did landscapes but there we are.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17So what, he, these are prostitutes one assumes,
0:33:17 > 0:33:19that he painted on his travels?
0:33:19 > 0:33:21It's thought that he did visit brothels,
0:33:21 > 0:33:25and there are also tales of him going down to view
0:33:25 > 0:33:29what were called "sailor's women" in activities.
0:33:29 > 0:33:30This is one of my favourites here,
0:33:30 > 0:33:33all sorts of legs in funny positions.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36And it's actually quite hard to work out what's going on there,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39but as you say, two legs here, mmm.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42Shall I lead you into something a little bit more revealing?
0:33:42 > 0:33:45I never thought when I got up this morning this is what I'd be doing.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47Anyway, lead on.
0:33:47 > 0:33:48Quite graphic, aren't they?
0:33:48 > 0:33:50They are.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52I mean I don't think we can show these on television.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54Does Mrs Booth feature anywhere in these?
0:33:54 > 0:33:58Possibly. This is one of the drawings from the Margate sketchbook.
0:33:59 > 0:34:01Are there any of her from
0:34:01 > 0:34:03a slightly more conventional, flattering angle?
0:34:03 > 0:34:04Yes, there is one here
0:34:04 > 0:34:07which Turner's most recent biographer
0:34:07 > 0:34:09has said is of Mrs Booth.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11Now that's not the most erotic drawing in the world
0:34:11 > 0:34:13but it's quite sensitively done,
0:34:13 > 0:34:15it feels like it's someone he knows.
0:34:15 > 0:34:17Yeah, has a real charm.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20As far as Turner was concerned these were all secret,
0:34:20 > 0:34:22but after he died, of course,
0:34:22 > 0:34:24when he leaves all these sketchbooks to the nation,
0:34:24 > 0:34:28it's another story and he has, some would say,
0:34:28 > 0:34:32the misfortune to have his bequest, particularly these sketchbooks,
0:34:32 > 0:34:36catalogued by an artist and an art critic called John Ruskin
0:34:36 > 0:34:39who was actually a great champion of Turner
0:34:39 > 0:34:41but he was also deeply prudish himself.
0:34:41 > 0:34:43So what does Ruskin do?
0:34:43 > 0:34:44Well, in 1862 he writes a letter
0:34:44 > 0:34:47saying that he destroyed some of these drawings
0:34:47 > 0:34:51and some of them he kept, packaged in an envelope on which he wrote,
0:34:51 > 0:34:53"Kept as evidence of failure of mind."
0:34:53 > 0:34:55So he thought Turner was some kind of degenerate
0:34:55 > 0:34:58or mental deviant because of these drawings?
0:34:58 > 0:34:59Yeah,
0:34:59 > 0:35:02and you get this kind of whitewash of this side of his life.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06I had no idea about this side of Turner's character,
0:35:06 > 0:35:09but what I am getting a clear idea about
0:35:09 > 0:35:13is that anything that is associated with this part of his life,
0:35:13 > 0:35:17his illicit relationship with Mrs Booth, these naughty pictures,
0:35:17 > 0:35:19they've been airbrushed out of this life
0:35:19 > 0:35:22because they've been considered degenerate or deviant
0:35:22 > 0:35:23or just undesirable,
0:35:23 > 0:35:26and any paintings, you know, from Mrs Booth
0:35:26 > 0:35:30that are associated with this side of Turner's character
0:35:30 > 0:35:34are questionable and kind of pushed to one side.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36Yep.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42I wonder what the Davies sisters would have made of all of this.
0:35:42 > 0:35:47Why were they drawn to paintings with such a controversial past?
0:35:50 > 0:35:52To find out I'm travelling to Montgomeryshire
0:35:52 > 0:35:54where Gwendoline and Margaret lived.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58Thanks to a family fortune
0:35:58 > 0:36:01forged during the industrialisation of Wales,
0:36:01 > 0:36:05the Davies sisters were among the richest heiresses in Britain.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08But they were different from other young ladies of their class.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11Brought up to be devoutly religious,
0:36:11 > 0:36:15they lived quiet, sheltered lives and they never married.
0:36:17 > 0:36:18What I find so surprising
0:36:18 > 0:36:22about the fact that the Davies sisters collected,
0:36:22 > 0:36:26not only Turners but Turners with this provenance from Mrs Booth is,
0:36:26 > 0:36:32well, I mean, they had a very strict, puritanical upbringing,
0:36:32 > 0:36:33they were teetotallers,
0:36:33 > 0:36:35they had a very moral view of life,
0:36:35 > 0:36:37and here was Turner and Mrs Booth,
0:36:37 > 0:36:40you know, I mean, it was an illicit relationship,
0:36:40 > 0:36:43a relationship out of wedlock, she was his mistress.
0:36:43 > 0:36:48It's a very strange coming together of two different worlds.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54The Davies sisters grew up here at Plas Dinam.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59Lord and Lady Davies have agreed to show me their family archives.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03Well, that's my Aunt Margaret, really as I remember her.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06That's a rather lovely one of her actually,
0:37:06 > 0:37:08because you can see the character in the face,
0:37:08 > 0:37:10even though she's an old lady by then.
0:37:10 > 0:37:12I guess she would have been about this age
0:37:12 > 0:37:18- when she was told that the Turners were not in fact Turners.- Yes.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20Here they are as young ladies looking very elegant.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22It's almost difficult to believe they had such
0:37:22 > 0:37:25a strict, religious, almost puritanical upbringing, didn't they?
0:37:25 > 0:37:28Yes, three times to chapel on Sunday
0:37:28 > 0:37:32and no alcohol, no drinking throughout their lives
0:37:32 > 0:37:34and drink not allowed in the house.
0:37:34 > 0:37:38They didn't participate in high society and high life at all.
0:37:38 > 0:37:39No high jinks.
0:37:39 > 0:37:41No, no high jinks.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43Not for the Davies sisters.
0:37:43 > 0:37:44It's easy to get an impression of them
0:37:44 > 0:37:47that they were reclusive, like little mice,
0:37:47 > 0:37:51but actually during the First World War they went to France
0:37:51 > 0:37:54and they ran or they worked in this place called La Cantine de Dames Anglaise,
0:37:54 > 0:37:56the Canteen of the English Ladies.
0:37:56 > 0:37:57Yes, in their journals
0:37:57 > 0:38:02they refer to the sound of machine guns and the sound of the bombs.
0:38:02 > 0:38:04It was only a few miles from the front,
0:38:04 > 0:38:06so they were sending those soldiers
0:38:06 > 0:38:08on their way with coffee and cigarettes,
0:38:08 > 0:38:10probably for the last time.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13I mean, it really was tough stuff, I think.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16So they were a bit more worldly than perhaps one is led to believe.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18Oh, I think so, yes, absolutely.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25The war had a profound effect on the Davies sisters.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29For several years they stopped collecting art.
0:38:29 > 0:38:34Gwendoline said, "We simply cannot in the face of the appalling need everywhere."
0:38:36 > 0:38:39It was Turner and Mrs Booth who reignited their passion
0:38:39 > 0:38:43when, in 1922, Beacon Light came up for sale.
0:38:45 > 0:38:50But did their eagerness to collect Mrs Booth's paintings mean the sisters were taken advantage of?
0:38:51 > 0:38:55I've been mulling over the letter sent on behalf of Margaret Davies
0:38:55 > 0:39:00when news came in that the pictures had been rejected,
0:39:00 > 0:39:04and particularly the line, "Someone has pulled off a fast one."
0:39:04 > 0:39:08So who could have pulled off a fast one?
0:39:08 > 0:39:11Whether I like it or not I've got to consider the thought.
0:39:11 > 0:39:12I mean, could it have been, for example
0:39:12 > 0:39:17some unscrupulous dealer who saw the two single sisters,
0:39:17 > 0:39:22picture hungry, loads of money, as easy prey,
0:39:22 > 0:39:26or could they have been pictures that were fakes
0:39:26 > 0:39:30and had been in circulation for years before that?
0:39:31 > 0:39:36To find out we need to establish precisely why, when and how
0:39:36 > 0:39:40the Davies sisters' paintings first came to the art market.
0:39:41 > 0:39:43Bendor and I have come to Christie's,
0:39:43 > 0:39:46the prestigious international auction house.
0:39:46 > 0:39:47£22 million.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51It was in this very saleroom that the rejected Turners were first sold.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55The original sale catalogues still exist
0:39:55 > 0:39:59and provide vital evidence about the provenance of our paintings.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02All of our pictures can be traced back to two auctions,
0:40:02 > 0:40:04which took place here at Christies.
0:40:04 > 0:40:08First was in 1865 and the second was in 1909.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10Now, for both sales,
0:40:10 > 0:40:12the pictures can be linked back to one guy,
0:40:12 > 0:40:14a man called Daniel John Pound
0:40:14 > 0:40:18and he was Mrs Booth's son from her first marriage
0:40:18 > 0:40:22and if you read this little bit of marketing guff up here,
0:40:22 > 0:40:24it seems like the sale was quite an event.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27"The following splendid works of JMW Turner
0:40:27 > 0:40:31"have never before been before the public
0:40:31 > 0:40:33"and are in a perfectly pure and genuine state."
0:40:33 > 0:40:35I like that phrase, "genuine state."
0:40:35 > 0:40:38I think what's interesting here is to try and figure out
0:40:38 > 0:40:41why Daniel John Pound or Mrs Booth were selling these pictures.
0:40:41 > 0:40:43And it turns out that
0:40:43 > 0:40:46although Turner was a really rich man during his lifetime,
0:40:46 > 0:40:49he could also be a little bit tight-fisted
0:40:49 > 0:40:53and Mrs Booth said that, apart from their first year together,
0:40:53 > 0:40:55he never contributed a single shilling
0:40:55 > 0:40:56towards their living expenses.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59For a man of his wealth, that's pretty unacceptable, isn't it?
0:40:59 > 0:41:01Mrs Booth certainly thought so
0:41:01 > 0:41:06and in fact in Turner's will, he left her 150 guineas a year,
0:41:06 > 0:41:08which she felt certainly wasn't enough
0:41:08 > 0:41:13and she decided to sue the executors for six years of board and washing.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16It sounds as though Mrs Booth got a pretty rough deal, didn't she?
0:41:16 > 0:41:19- Mm-hm.- But at least we know why she sold the pictures.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21We've got very good provenance here.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23I mean, it's there, in black and white.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27And here is Margate Jetty in the 1909 sale
0:41:27 > 0:41:29and then here Beacon On The Rock,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32as it was then called, Beacon Light.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35But the only one we can't be sure about is Off Margate
0:41:35 > 0:41:38and that's because the dimensions don't exactly match up.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40But of course that can be explained by the fact
0:41:40 > 0:41:42- that it was cut down.- Of course.
0:41:42 > 0:41:44So, what's the problem?
0:41:44 > 0:41:47The scholars who rejected our paintings have suggested
0:41:47 > 0:41:50that the pictures came to the market through underground ways.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52So the inference of that is pretty sinister.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56They're suggesting that Daniel John Pound, Mrs Booth's son,
0:41:56 > 0:41:57could have been peddling fakes.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01And Daniel John Pound was a man of some considerable artistic skill.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03He was an engraver, a very accomplished engraver,
0:42:03 > 0:42:07and his job was to take copies of photographs of famous people
0:42:07 > 0:42:10and make engraving plates which were then reproduced
0:42:10 > 0:42:13in these expensive books of prints.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16OK, so you've made good progress with the provenance,
0:42:16 > 0:42:20- but you've introduced a figure of some concern.- Mmm-hm.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24I mean, Pound was a man who was known to be able to do copies,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27I know it's miles away from Turner's style,
0:42:27 > 0:42:30but could he have been counterfeiting the master's work?
0:42:32 > 0:42:34It's a chilling thought
0:42:34 > 0:42:39that our paintings may be the handiwork of Daniel John Pound.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41To prove this, one way or another,
0:42:41 > 0:42:44we need to complete our forensic investigation.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48Adam has brought the samples of the Davies sisters' paintings
0:42:48 > 0:42:50to Tate Britain
0:42:50 > 0:42:53so that we can compare them to genuine Turner works.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58Senior conservation scientist, Joyce Townsend,
0:42:58 > 0:43:02has sampled hundreds of paintings in the Turner Bequest.
0:43:02 > 0:43:07She's the world authority on the materials he painted with.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09Her findings could fulfil our hopes,
0:43:09 > 0:43:12or dash them.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14If we're to spot the hand of a faker,
0:43:14 > 0:43:17it's also crucial to understand how Turner painted.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21Artist Tony Smibert has studied Turner's techniques.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25I've asked him to demonstrate the master's tricks of the trade.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29Turner started his career as a watercolourist
0:43:29 > 0:43:32and this is a watercolour process to lay down a colour beginning,
0:43:32 > 0:43:35which is, if you like, a basic composition.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38That composition gives him the guide for everything that's going to follow.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40Just start laying down the paint like this.
0:43:40 > 0:43:42Oh, I see, with a rag.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45Yes, and lay this colour over the whole canvas.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49Soon it'll start to look a bit like a watercolour beginning by Turner.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52- What even though it was in oils?- Yes.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54Turner took watercolour technique into oils
0:43:54 > 0:43:56and then as a result of becoming a master of oils,
0:43:56 > 0:44:00he took oil painting technique back to watercolour, revolutionised both.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06So this is Beacon Light, Joyce, like we've never seen it before.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08Now, tell me what you can see.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10We're looking at the layer structure.
0:44:10 > 0:44:15We start at the bottom, this white is the priming on the canvas.
0:44:15 > 0:44:20Right on top, very, very thin, is the colour beginning.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24This is when Turner quickly blocked in all the colours.
0:44:24 > 0:44:30- Right.- Then we have a very thick layer with lots of brushstrokes,
0:44:30 > 0:44:34and then in this section the impasto on top.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37The impasto being the final thick layer of paint.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40So this is a pretty complex structure.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44- I mean, is this what you'd expect to find in a Turner?- Very much so, yes.
0:44:44 > 0:44:49The way Turner worked, he could think and paint very quickly.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51We know that he worked with warm colours,
0:44:51 > 0:44:54then created his shapes with cool colours, and built up tonal values.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56Seeing how you're working
0:44:56 > 0:44:58and the spontaneity of the way you're working
0:44:58 > 0:45:01that would be very hard to copy, to fake, wouldn't it?
0:45:01 > 0:45:02It is, yes.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05Really, only someone with enormous skill and maturity
0:45:05 > 0:45:07as an artist could do the sort of things
0:45:07 > 0:45:10that Turner was doing, the way that he was doing them.
0:45:10 > 0:45:11What about the colours?
0:45:11 > 0:45:15Can we start with that yellow? I can see a big chunk of it in there.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18I know that Turner, of course, loves this yellow.
0:45:18 > 0:45:21I mean, people used to rather send him up for his use of yellow.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25Well, we would be very concerned if we found, for example,
0:45:25 > 0:45:27- Cadmium yellow.- The reason for that?
0:45:27 > 0:45:31It wasn't invented until the very end of Turner's life,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33and he never used it. I haven't found it.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35And I love that type of exactitude.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39Well, put us out of our misery. What type of yellow is it?
0:45:39 > 0:45:42Turner's favourite yellow, Chrome yellow.
0:45:42 > 0:45:44- Yes, yes. Phew, relief. - And we can look at the blues.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47And if we had something like Cerulean blue here,
0:45:47 > 0:45:49then we'd be in trouble.
0:45:49 > 0:45:51Wasn't invented until 1860.
0:45:51 > 0:45:56OK, problem. Problem for a Turner. And the answer?
0:45:56 > 0:45:58The answer is Cobalt blue.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00Another one that Turner used a lot,
0:46:00 > 0:46:03and he was a really early adopter.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07So we can say now that there are no pigments in Beacon Light
0:46:07 > 0:46:10that would suggest the hand of a later faker,
0:46:10 > 0:46:11but what about the other two?
0:46:11 > 0:46:14Here's Off Margate.
0:46:16 > 0:46:17Here's Margate Jetty.
0:46:19 > 0:46:25Same kind of structure from the bottom up. Everything is consistent.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30Now, this is very flat looking. How would Turner build up texture?
0:46:30 > 0:46:36The first is with thick paint which gives its own natural texture.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40The next one that Turner used was to add beeswax to it. So...
0:46:40 > 0:46:42- Add beeswax to the paint? - Yeah, add beeswax to it.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45It's less expensive than paint, and it means that
0:46:45 > 0:46:48you can build body in and the paint looks exactly the same,
0:46:48 > 0:46:51- it looks like I've added more paint.- Oh, I see.
0:46:51 > 0:46:53The third way is something called megilp, which is
0:46:53 > 0:46:58linseed oil cooked up with lead and mixed with mastic varnish,
0:46:58 > 0:47:02and that enables you to get texture but a softer surface.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04It's a bit like a cookery lesson.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08Where you've added the beeswax, it's a bit like whipped cream...
0:47:08 > 0:47:11and then where you've added the megilp is more like single cream.
0:47:11 > 0:47:13Yes, absolutely.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16And, I mean the point is that means you've got an enormous variety
0:47:16 > 0:47:18of ways you can work on the surface of the canvas.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22Those who observed Turner said he was a magician with paint,
0:47:22 > 0:47:27mixing up strange concoctions to conjure dazzling illusions.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31So working out the ingredients in our paintings is key to proving
0:47:31 > 0:47:34whether they're genuine.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36One last crucial test can determine
0:47:36 > 0:47:39exactly what oils and waxes are present.
0:47:39 > 0:47:42Then we have to see if the results are consistent
0:47:42 > 0:47:45with Turner's peculiar paint recipes.
0:47:45 > 0:47:50Now, if Turner was doing this, there'd be a storm.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53I feel like one of the Greek gods commanding the weather,
0:47:53 > 0:47:55but let's have storm going on here.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57Now, what are you doing there? Mixing the paint with the beeswax.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59Yeah, with the wax, yep.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01So one of the things that you might see
0:48:01 > 0:48:03is waves crashing in like this here.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08The wind catching the surface of the waves like this.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11What if we were going to have mist coming in?
0:48:11 > 0:48:13I'm going to mist the whole thing.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16Yes, this has a bit of mist coming. I'm loving the power of this.
0:48:16 > 0:48:21Would Turner use the same system, you know, the beeswax for waves,
0:48:21 > 0:48:24megilp for clouds? Did he have a system across his paintings?
0:48:24 > 0:48:27Science tells us yes. Certain weather effects he had a formula for
0:48:27 > 0:48:29so you'd find the same sorts of processes
0:48:29 > 0:48:33used for mist and waves and so on, in a very wide number of paintings.
0:48:34 > 0:48:40So we know that Turner used all sorts of ingredients to mix his paints
0:48:40 > 0:48:43but what are the sort of ingredients we wouldn't like to find?
0:48:43 > 0:48:47Something that we know is 20th century, so safflower oil,
0:48:47 > 0:48:51or soya oil, those kinds of things, would be a real concern here.
0:48:51 > 0:48:53So if we found those,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56the attribution to Turner would be dead in the water.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58Absolutely, yes.
0:48:58 > 0:49:00Well, shall we have a look at the graph?
0:49:00 > 0:49:04We have linseed oil. These orange peaks over here.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07Turner used it all the time,
0:49:07 > 0:49:11so did a lot of other people in the 19th century.
0:49:11 > 0:49:17It wasn't unique to him, but more interestingly, this red,
0:49:17 > 0:49:21all the green peaks together, show that there's beeswax.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23Ah, beeswax.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26Now, that was one of his favourite tipples, wasn't it,
0:49:26 > 0:49:28for mixing with his paints.
0:49:28 > 0:49:30Indeed, Turner used it all the time.
0:49:30 > 0:49:35You really need it if you're going to make high impasto,
0:49:35 > 0:49:40and it's in the high impasto of the Beacon Light.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42It's also in the background as well.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46- So you find it throughout the whole picture?- Indeed.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50Now doesn't this argue for it being consistently by one hand
0:49:50 > 0:49:52rather than another hand or a faker as well?
0:49:52 > 0:49:55Yes, I mean, I think what we've found is that,
0:49:55 > 0:49:59of all the areas we've sampled the results are very consistent,
0:49:59 > 0:50:02so it all adds up to Turner so far.
0:50:02 > 0:50:06- That's good news, no? - Yeah, very.- Isn't it?
0:50:07 > 0:50:11What we've managed to establish today is entirely new evidence.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15The science tells us that all the materials used in these pictures
0:50:15 > 0:50:19are consistent with the materials used by Turner.
0:50:19 > 0:50:23Furthermore, it also tells us that in the case of Beacon Light,
0:50:23 > 0:50:27it's almost certainly all by the same hand,
0:50:27 > 0:50:32and all the evidence adds up to that hand being Turner.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37The day of reckoning has finally come.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40We've gathered at the National Museum of Wales,
0:50:40 > 0:50:43where the paintings will be subjected to a re-trial.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46Martin Butlin has agreed to re-examine
0:50:46 > 0:50:51the Davies sisters paintings, which he last rejected 28 years ago.
0:50:51 > 0:50:55Today, art history could be made.
0:50:55 > 0:50:57Finally, we've got here.
0:50:57 > 0:51:02If Martin says, "Yes," we're home and dry, but the problem is,
0:51:02 > 0:51:05Martin wrote the Catalogue Raisonne,
0:51:05 > 0:51:09and in it he published these pictures as wrong, as not by Turner.
0:51:09 > 0:51:13So we're going to need the man who actually said, "No"
0:51:13 > 0:51:18to say, "Yes". Now in the art world, that's a big ask.
0:51:18 > 0:51:20I've no idea how it's going to go.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23With all the work that we've done I hope, you know, technically,
0:51:23 > 0:51:27we can prove to Martin that they're by Turner,
0:51:27 > 0:51:31and emotionally we can strip away this whole taint
0:51:31 > 0:51:33by association with Mrs Booth.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37Are you feeling optimistic now we've got to this final stage?
0:51:37 > 0:51:39I am certainly, yes.
0:51:39 > 0:51:41No, I, I am optimistic,
0:51:41 > 0:51:43there's always that little element of doubt
0:51:43 > 0:51:46but we're definitely optimistic that it's going to go well.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50- How are you feeling?- Really excited, really excited, yes.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54I shall be very thrilled if it goes the way I think it should.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56It was rotten for Margaret to be told
0:51:56 > 0:51:58that some of them weren't Turners,
0:51:58 > 0:52:01and I'd say hip-hip-hooray for her if they turned out to be right.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05But have we done enough to convince Martin?
0:52:05 > 0:52:07When academics come together
0:52:07 > 0:52:12to make crunch decisions about the authenticity of a painting,
0:52:12 > 0:52:17this is not something that's normally done before an audience.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20This is something that happens behind closed doors.
0:52:20 > 0:52:27We have access to a process which very rarely does one witness.
0:52:27 > 0:52:32Now, the painting on the left, this one of Margate Jetty,
0:52:32 > 0:52:35was accused of being a later copy.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37Basically, it was thought, you know,
0:52:37 > 0:52:41it just looked too late to be by Turner.
0:52:41 > 0:52:43It is a very peculiar sort of format and size.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45How much do you think could be explained
0:52:45 > 0:52:48by the fact that this is a fragment
0:52:48 > 0:52:53and should be indeed seen as something on a much larger scale?
0:52:53 > 0:52:54It could well be a fragment,
0:52:54 > 0:52:58but, I mean, a fragment quite of what?
0:52:58 > 0:53:01What do you add to it? What do you put on each side?
0:53:01 > 0:53:02I think if you compare it
0:53:02 > 0:53:05with the watercolour which shows Margate Jetty,
0:53:05 > 0:53:08I think then it begins to make sense as a composition.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12Shall we look at Off Margate? Listed in the Catalogue Raisonne
0:53:12 > 0:53:16as work no longer thought to be by Turner.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18What was the primary problem with this for you?
0:53:18 > 0:53:20It doesn't really make much sense,
0:53:20 > 0:53:24particularly with the bits that run across the middle of the picture.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28And it's now very two dimensional
0:53:28 > 0:53:31but it could be just a question of the condition.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34And that brings us to Beacon Light.
0:53:34 > 0:53:40This is a painting that you felt was started by Turner...
0:53:40 > 0:53:42..but completed by a faker.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44There are certain elements in the picture
0:53:44 > 0:53:48which don't look like the original Turner.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52I've seen the results of analysis from the paint in the foreground
0:53:52 > 0:53:55and from the background and they match.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58They're very much something that Turner would have used
0:53:58 > 0:54:00for this kind of paint.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04The paint would be consistent, but the look of it to me isn't.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12This is not what we expected.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16Do you know, I thought he'd react a bit more positively
0:54:16 > 0:54:18after all the work that we've done.
0:54:18 > 0:54:22I felt, and I know Philip felt, that our argument was convincing
0:54:22 > 0:54:24but look, it's still going on.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28He wants more time, he wants to sleep on it,
0:54:28 > 0:54:31you know, his reputation is at stake,
0:54:31 > 0:54:33Turner's reputation is at stake.
0:54:33 > 0:54:37There's so much riding on this that he wants time to think about it
0:54:37 > 0:54:39and that's not unreasonable...
0:54:41 > 0:54:42..but it's not what we hoped for.
0:54:48 > 0:54:54A few days later, Martin Butlin is ready to give his verdict.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57So what do you think Martin's going to say?
0:54:57 > 0:55:03I know what I think he should say, but I have to say, after Cardiff,
0:55:03 > 0:55:06after that meeting in front of those paintings,
0:55:06 > 0:55:07I'm doubtful.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10You know, you read the vibes, don't you?
0:55:10 > 0:55:13His whole kind of body language was pretty negative,
0:55:13 > 0:55:17but you know, he's slept on it, he's had a couple of days,
0:55:17 > 0:55:20so, you know, let's be positive. Let's hope.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26Martin, you've had a couple of days
0:55:26 > 0:55:28to think about it, to mull it all over.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32All our work has led up to this point, so no pressure!
0:55:32 > 0:55:34What do you think of the paintings?
0:55:34 > 0:55:37Well, first of all, I think an important thing
0:55:37 > 0:55:39about all three of the pictures
0:55:39 > 0:55:41is they are not as they left the artist.
0:55:41 > 0:55:43Two of them have been cut down,
0:55:43 > 0:55:47one has been very badly squashed, in fact,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50by the relining process, so what we're looking at
0:55:50 > 0:55:55is not what whoever the artist is left them like.
0:55:55 > 0:55:57Well, we'd like to know who you do think the artist is.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01Let's take them one at a time. Let's start with Off Margate.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04Off Margate is the one that's been squashed flat.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07Unfortunately, this painting is a ghost.
0:56:09 > 0:56:13Whose ghost? It could well be by Turner, but a ruined Turner.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16If you were publishing your Catalogue Raisonne again,
0:56:16 > 0:56:19would you actually put it in,
0:56:19 > 0:56:22but then add a second or third paragraph
0:56:22 > 0:56:25saying what you have just said about condition?
0:56:25 > 0:56:28I think one probably would, yes.
0:56:28 > 0:56:29So that's a "by Turner?"
0:56:31 > 0:56:35It's a "probably by Turner," but I wouldn't stake my life on it.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38All right. Let's move on.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40Margate Jetty?
0:56:40 > 0:56:42Now, that I'm much happier about,
0:56:42 > 0:56:45particularly since it's been demonstrated
0:56:45 > 0:56:48that it could be a fragment from a composition,
0:56:48 > 0:56:52much like the watercolour in the Courtauld Institute.
0:56:52 > 0:56:53What's your verdict?
0:56:53 > 0:56:56I think in this case it's yes.
0:56:56 > 0:56:58I think it's possibly suffered a bit.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01So you think Margate Jetty is by Turner.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04Well, it's the remains of a Turner, yes.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06We'll take that as a yes. That sounds pretty good to me.
0:57:06 > 0:57:09OK. Finally, Beacon Light.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12I have to say a picture I've become very attached to
0:57:12 > 0:57:14over the last few months.
0:57:14 > 0:57:20Do you think that this is all by Turner or as has been published,
0:57:20 > 0:57:22that this is likely to be the work of two hands,
0:57:22 > 0:57:24a faker adding to Turner?
0:57:24 > 0:57:27I now think it's almost certainly all by Turner.
0:57:29 > 0:57:31Oh my gosh, that's fantastic.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34That is absolutely...I was convinced you were not going to say that.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37Well, we do occasionally change our minds
0:57:37 > 0:57:40when we have the right evidence, and it was 25 years ago or longer
0:57:40 > 0:57:44that we last thought about those pictures.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48So before you came in here today, we had three paintings in Cardiff.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51the legacy of the wonderful Davies sisters,
0:57:51 > 0:57:54which were rather unloved and languishing.
0:57:54 > 0:57:57Now we have one painting, Off Margate,
0:57:57 > 0:58:01that could well be by Turner, more likely by Turner than not.
0:58:01 > 0:58:06Margate Jetty by Turner, Beacon Light by Turner.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10- Yeah. - I mean that's fantastic progress.
0:58:10 > 0:58:11I only wish the Davies sisters were here.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15I mean, that act of generosity that was thrown back in their face,
0:58:15 > 0:58:17has today been rectified.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21And now their paintings can hang on the wall with pride.
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