Sometimes new artistic inspiration takes the form of a happy accident, which it did recently after watching an episode of the BBC’s Fake or Fortune programme. Fake or Fortune is a programme that I have started watching more frequently since starting my art MA. For those who don’t watch this programme the basic premise is that gallery owner Philip Mould and presenter Fiona Bruce each episode set off on another artistic ‘who done it’ or rather ‘who painted, drew or sculpted this?’ quest. There is often a reasonable amount of doubt over the work in question hence all the detective work; and then at the end of the programme there is a big reveal: did the suspected artist create the work or did someone else or is a fake or do we still do not know?

Now, I should point out here that whilst this programme is interesting, and I like anything to do with art, the programme format does play up a bit to the cameras and the hype: i.e. I think that the programme makers like a bit of controversy – in one episode I watched the authority’s / experts in Paris who were looking at the work decided it was a fake and not only withheld it but destroyed the artwork! Whilst everyone was shocked, and this must have been particularly upsetting for the painting’s owners I suspect that such incidents may help boost the programmes ratings? This and the fact that some of the content is dumbed down for a large viewing audience mean that it is not my favourite art programme.

However, on a recent episode (it may have been a rerun) they show cased a supposed Renoir painting in Picton Castle in Pembrokeshire. I won’t go into the full story here but I’ll rather link in here the castles website where there is an account of what happened: https://www.pictoncastle.co.uk/fake-or-fortune-the-picton-renoir-features-on-tv-sunday-12-july-at-8-00pm

Basically, there is a good chance that this painting is by Renoir, however the art world ‘experts’ cannot agree and so this definition cannot be official; unfortunately for Picton this does dramatically devalue the work.

Now, all of this is slightly ‘by the by’; when watching the programme, I had missed the very start so did not actually realise where ‘Picton’ was and had certainly not thought about going to see the painting.

However, chance would have it that a friend was visiting us at the time and we were considering places to visit / take them. We had not tried visiting anything in this area of Pembrokeshire previously and so when web searching and Picton came up the family simply considered this to be an interesting castle to visit. It was only when looking again what was there that I put 2 and 2 together and realised that I would be visiting the painting that I had just been learning about.

This proved to be a fun thing to do, it is always good to see art in the flesh particularly pieces that you might have seen on online, on TV, or in a book; there is something about a real artwork that cannot be conveyed through other media; and I enjoyed spotting the painting and having my own close look at the work. However, this was not what I gained most from the experience. Rather, I found myself considering what other ‘master pieces’ might be hidden in such great houses as Picton and indeed who was to say what is a master piece and what is not. Fake or Fortune had brought to the attention of the world this small painting and whether or not it was by Renoir it’s status had undoubtedly been elevated; a few years before it had just been another small painting on the wall of a great house gathering dust and probably quite ignored. What is to say that there are not many such cases across the British Isles or indeed the world? And even those pieces of work which we know were not done by anyone of consequence; what is to say that a single piece cannot be a great piece of art in its own right?

In short, my brush with Renoir’s painting has highlighted to me the importance of looking twice at paintings, drawings, photographs and indeed any art as I move through my life. It is easy to walk around museums, national trust properties and the like and to not really take in what you are being shown. Starting that day, I have slowed down when visiting such places and have taken the time to really look at the work on display.

Picton Castle Renoir

Below are some of the other paintings on display in Picton Castle.

Inspired by all of the art work on display, I did my own En plein air sketch of the front of Picton Castle, sitting on the damp leaves at the edge of their main driveway:-

Sketch of the front of Picton castle.