Overview
- The BBC programme Fake Or Fortune? announced on Thursday, July 23, 2026, that art historian Charles Greig is certain the portrait brought in by Mary-Louise Wedderburn is by 18th-century Scottish artist Katherine Read.
- Courtauld-led technical tests on pigments and brushwork plus a detailed family dossier were cited on the programme as the key evidence supporting the reattribution.
- Experts identified the sitter as likely a member of the Nawab’s family in Madras, a rare high-status Indian subject for a European woman artist of the period.
- Dealers on the show estimated the work’s market value at about £100,000 or more, but Wedderburn has said she prefers not to sell and wants the painting shown to the public.
- Scholars say the find boosts research into overlooked women artists and could prompt further discoveries of Read’s work and related archival material in India and Britain.