Lost McNicoll painting surfaces after century
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David Taylor, an English artist and art dealer, purchased an oil painting at a regional auction for £2,090 that experts later identified as a lost work by Canadian Impressionist Helen McNicoll.
The painting had been mislabeled as “in the style of” McNicoll and incorrectly dated, but Taylor recognised the quality of the brushwork.
He contacted the BBC television programme Fake or Fortune?, and Philip Mould and Fiona Bruce led an investigation that confirmed the painting’s authenticity through pigment analysis and historical research. Researchers discovered the painting was originally titled The Bean Harvest and exhibited in Canada from 1912 to 1913 before disappearing from public view. The investigation traced the painting to a British private collection, revealing a possible connection between McNicoll and British painter Norman Pine-Coffin. Experts valued the rediscovered artwork at £300,000.
Ultimately, Canadian collector Pierre Lassonde purchased the painting at Sotheby’s in London for £174,000 and loaned it to the Art Gallery of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada. There, it became a central display in the exhibition Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey, allowing the public to view the work after 110 years.
Helen McNicoll, born in Toronto in 1879, studied art in London and became an elected member of both the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts before her death in 1915.
