VALUABLE PICTURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21146, 1 April 1932, Page 11

VALUABLE PICTURE.

GAINSBOROUGH "FIND." BOUGHT FOR NINE POUNDS. [ritOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] SYDNEY. March 24. 1 Mr. George Page-Cooper, of Richmond, who purchased an early Gainsborough landscape picture in Melbourne last week for £9. estimates its value at more than £IO.OOO.

The picture is a fine example of the painter's Ipswich period. Mr. Page-Coc-per expressed his willingness to-day to lend the Gainsborough to the National Gallery for a period. Alternately. Mr. Page-Cooper is willing to lend lhe picture to the Lord Mayor's Fund or a similar organisation, for exhibition, the proceeds to go to charity. The find recalls the Sydney Gainsborough, which proved to be another version 'of " The Market Cart." and was formerly in the Smart collection in Sydney. When the /collection was dispersed great difiicultv was experienced i> finding a buyer. Jt was some considerable time later that, the picture was sold for about £IOO. It was later resold in London for 19.000 g lirieas. Mr. Page-Cooper first heard of his Gainsbor'iugh through Mr. Archie Meyers, a Collins Street art dealer, to whom the picture and two others were offered. Knowing Mr. Page-Cooper's enthusiasm as a collector of old paintings, he introduced the owner, Mr. Mcrehead, to him. A tradition jn the Morehead family attributed the picture 1 - -1 Claude Loiiaine. The picture ma/lo an impression on Mi Page-Cor per, who thought it- n work r,t the' Richard Wilson school. Tim condition o: the canvas convinced him of its age, ind be, felt certain it was a work of art o : some value. But lib was not quite prepared, how«ver, for the discovery made by Mr. fnvinton Diston, in the course of clean,'ng, that the picture was a signed Gainsborough dated-1753. Later on, the name " Ga inshore* " was found written on the back of the old frame after it had been cleaned. ifr. Page-Cooper has been collecting old pictures for some years, and nar> Packed up many interesting works, n j>the present discovery is the crowning event of his career as a collector. J Lis Collection contains ahout 200 woiks. ineluding Italian, J rrcn(- ' 1 ' Dutch anf ' lish examples. These include a Jan cen interior, bought, from the recent sale ot the Smith Collection: a "Marriage of , St. Catherine,"' attributed to DorneniJ'hino; an old panel probably of the Rembrandt school, and a fine study thought 'to be by Turner.