Painted in 1843, the stylish artist’s miniature portrait of a 31-year-old Charles Dickens was displayed at the time, way back in 1844. Since appearing at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, a prestigious Victorian event, the painting by Margeret Gillies disappeared from public view.  Acquired privately, the image no-doubt spent some time on the wall somewhere before being packed up as an heirloom or out-of-trend knickknack too valuable to give away. This was back in 1844, more than 160 years ago. 
 
Back in 2017, before we received our collective pandemic trauma, in an auctioned South African pile of belongings, a dust and mould covered painting was uncovered. It looked like Charles Dickens, but with the grime and the discolouration, it was difficult to tell. Thankfully, its owner took the portrait to Fake or Fortune art connoisseur Philip Mould to clean it up and have a proper look. The extremely reputable authority on art of this period was able to clarify that it was not only a portrait of Dickens but the lost portrait from the Summer Exhibition of 1844.  
 
Naturally, the new owner decided to sell the piece, maybe to make the money back from the initial auction. This is where the Dickens Museum in Holborn came into play. You might think that the Dickens name carries huge wealth, yet the money didn’t come from them. With the help of fans and enthusiasts, family, friends, and locals, the venue was able to find the fee and bring their artist back home. To be displayed among the many other Dickens related treasures they have on show, an image of the younger man is back in public view.  
 
Already famous for his Pickwick Papers, a serialised storyline involving a pantheon of relatable characters including the immortal portrayal of Professor Pickwick, and his friendly nemesis Alfred Jingle. Although not an international superstar, which was to come much later with thanks to films made from his later stories after his death, Dickens was still a man of significant regard in his day.  
 
Dickens drew on his early experiences of marginalisation and poverty when crafting his narratives. From a family who struggled with debt, which in those days would put you in prison if you could not pay, the aspiring novelist carried this sense of injustice forward with his literary creations. Known for highlighting the difficulties of the poor and the working class in a system that provides very little to some and everything to others, Dickens’ work no-doubt went on to shape real public policy when concerning the topics he cared about.  
 
When you go and see the painting, or if you simply see it on this page, look at the face and ask if he could possibly have known who he was to become and what his work would achieve. Look at the quiet dignity the artist has given him, although already battered by age for his day. What blemishes and pains do you think she decided to hide when creating his best likeness? Don’t you think we all should get the same dignity handed to us, if not for what we’ve done already but for what we’re going to do throughout our lives? 

​Via The Standard

Go ahead and look through the Dickens bibliography on Amazon. Purchases support Alternative Fruit.

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I love looking through these Aladdin’s Cave stores, with all kinds of so-called junk and unwanted things. The idea of searching through the mishmash of former belongings and sensing the history within each piece as they pass from tabletop to hand to tabletop is magical and captivating. Where some of us see a future bin lorry haul, others see a collected history of modern and retro style, represented in every kind of imaginable way. Books, comics, magazines, furniture, electronics, ornaments, clothes, music, toys, they all come from somewhere and some place in our time. One thing we can usually be certain of, though, is the fact that nothing is worth much. It’s cheap.  
 
Luigi Lo Rosso is one such purveyor of timeless artifacts and mismatched collectibles. Back in 1962, he acquired a canvas depicting a man and a woman. He hung it on his wall in a cheap frame while living in Pompeii. Now in Capri, with plenty of things still packed away in his basement, the junk shop owner’s son happened to mention the painting to someone who knew more than he did. The signature looked a lot like that of Picasso and the image seemed to show the artist himself with one of his many lovers. The unusual image was then shown to real experts who authenticated the painting as genuine.  
 
The esteemed and sought-after graphologist Cinzia Altieri spent months comparing the writing to that on known works by the famous painter. Every little detail was studied and compared, taking into account for the freedom of human writing and the common aspects that run through every example, enough points of reference were found to determine the painter’s true hand. Luigi Lo Rosso must be very proud, and glad he left his business in such capable hands. Imagine how easy it would have been to simply buy the painting for a few Euros, with its retailer unaware of its real worth? Thankfully the due diligence of his son Andrea was enough to uncover this brand-new example.  
 
The painting is said to resemble Picasso’s 1938 work, Buste de femme. Featuring the French photographer Dora Maar with his famous cubism style. Stolen from a Saudi Sheik’s luxury yacht in 1999 and recovered two decades later, Buste de femme has entered cultural repute thanks to its exciting journey through the underworld. This newly found piece appears to be a pairing to the image thought to have been painted slightly earlier and shows the couple appear to melt into one another in an embrace. Valued at over 6 million Euros, the recently discovered Picasso is sure to have interest from all sides of the equation.  

Progress happens so quickly, and although most of the time it is appreciated, sometimes we can feel a little overwhelmed. The loss of our sense of home is real when familiar routines and scenes disappear forever. If you live in the same place for most of your life, the various landmarks and talking points can become more than just buildings and marketing. We become attached to the various feelings and advice that are offered by the things that surround us. By remembering to enjoy things we love that are from times gone by, we can help to remedy this sense of loss and transition. By reliving and rekindling old times, we can remind ourselves that although we have grown and a lot of things have changed, we are still the same person inside. Maybe this is why certain albums stand the test of time and get replayed decades after their release.  

The highstreets were once a natural river of human culture. Before the age of internet shopping, we’d all know the local and city highstreets. The rows of shops became our second home as every week or so we’d go and visit them and look forward to browsing the shelves. It was not uncommon to bump into people you knew from school, work, religion, or your own road, as you’d wander the various frontages and peer in. Something that has been replaced by technology and disposable methods is the old painted signs. Their shadows, or ghosts, can often still be seen haunting the walls of the various buildings that line the way.  

By-gone product names and long-forgotten brands, the occasional success story in which we still buy the subject of the advert, we can remember the past and feel connected to our own by enjoying these almost lost pieces of pop culture. Before they all disappear completely, like-minded artists and history fans are helping to keep them alive by repainting them. Old fashioned adverts often make modern decorative art in the home, so the natural step is to relive the past at large with these shopfront versions of the old message.  

In the British city of Gloucester, a trend of repainting ghostsigns has begun thanks to the handywork of one talented and historically minded artist. Tash Frootko (BBC) was able to find photographs of the original signs after contacting the previous shop owners. The turn of the century hand painted signs were once striking visages on Dynevor Street, Gloucester and now have been lovingly restored to appear exactly how they once did. The theme seems to have continued as other artists and property owners are beginning to follow suit.   
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The people of Gloucester are not alone in their love of the past’s simplicity. A site by a guy called Sam Roberts is dedicated to mapping these hidden gems across London and beyond. Visitors are free to upload and submit their own photographs meaning that the site now has an encyclopaedia of images from around the globe. It was not just a British invention as ghostsigns have been spotted and documented in many countries. Sam Roberts has dedicated so much time and energy to the study and effect of ghostsigns around London that he was able to write a thorough and intriguing book all about them. Well worth a look.  
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​During renovation work in a kitchen, an elderly French woman stumbled across a dusty old painting stored above the old-fashioned stove. The old picture was put down as rubbish and was destined for the wheely bin. We may never know when the penny dropped for her, but at some point, she decided to have it looked at before the irreversible action. A local expert was called in to have a look and they decided it was likely a genuine artwork from a thousand years ago. Once it was assessed properly, the expert proved that it was a missing masterpiece by the Italian painter Cimabue.
 
The mosaic maker and painter from Florence lived between 1240 and 1300. He is known as part of the Italo-Byzantine period. Credited with being the first major influence of the day to move away from the traditional Byzantine schema, Cimabue helped to bring in a more diverse and creative edge when depicting scenes from literature. A heavy influence of religious thought dominated the scope of what artists were doing at the time, and Cimabue was no different in that he is best known for his iconography.  
 
Christ Mocked is one of the eight panels from a multi-panelled fresco of which five are still at large. The image shows Jesus on his way to the Crucifixion as members of the public amuse themselves on his story and his fate. Painted on a poplar wood panel with a gold-leaf background, the traditional and exquisite style is an ideal example of the era’s work. Discovering the poignant image and rescuing it from its fate in the heat of family cooking, it’s remarkable that the work is still in good condition.
 
When the lost Cimabue was discovered in the old French house, it was snapped into auction. Several interested parties showed up to try their luck at the painting, which was valued at around 400,000 Euros. One of the biggest names present was The Louvre, the world-famous French museum of art. However, when the bidding began it became clear that public funded resources were out of their league when it came to the missing masterpiece. The painting eventually sold for 24 million Euros.
 
The story didn’t end there, though, as the French government stepped in to attempt to secure the work. The Minister for Culture declared the work to be a national treasure and applied an embargo on its export. This meant that the new owner was unable to take their new painting home. The Louvre was given a timeline of 30 months to raise the money to outbid the auction winner by the state secretary at which their patrons came to life. With the reward of tax breaks, several people donated money to the museum in a hope to raise the funds. Eventually, they managed to raise enough to buy the painting from the owner, probably for a profit, and keep the painting in France.
 
Christ Mocked will be on display in The Louvre in 2025. Two days after the sale of the painting for the astonishing sum of money, which put the work in the same graph as Da Vinci and Raphael, the elderly French woman died. It’s sad to know that she’ll never enjoy her fortune, let’s hope that she had grandchildren who can enjoy it in her name.
 

​​From just four dollars to an approximate quarter of a million, an antique painting has been determined as by one of the master painters of the early 20th Century. N.C. Wyeth is responsible for some of the most dramatic and imaginative evocations that accompanied literature and stood on their own merit. With over 3000 paintings to his name, the prolific artist was an unending fountain of inspiration. Over 100 books were illustrated by him, and the works remain as poignant today as they were at the time. The most famous of his published works is probably Scribner’s Treasure Island, the proceeds from which funded his budding career.
 
Originally bought in 2017 for the fact it had a nice frame, the genuine Wyeth was taken home by an art enthusiast without an inkling of its provenance. However, in a moment of clarity, the new owner decided to do some research before assigning the unknown work to the wastepaper bin. Thankfully the sleuthing paid off and within a few weeks the painting had gained attention on social media from several art experts. Lauren Lewis, from Maine, was so intrigued by the painting that she dropped everything and went in person to the New Hampshire residence where it was being kept.
 
An expert with a career’s worth of experience with Wyeth paintings, Lauren Lewis was able to clarify that the work really is 99% a Wyeth. Clearly, unless we see the work created by the artist, there is always a little doubt. However, with replica works, one or two of the key elements of individuality can be copied however the whole range of talent and micro elements that build the artist’s personality are rarely imitated in one item. The painting in question is believed to be the missing illustration for Ramona from 1939. Due to be sold at auction in just a few days, the painting is valued around $250,000 and is already gaining lots of attention from collectors.
 
One for the tabletop: ​Great Illustrations by N. C. Wyeth (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)
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