The British Art Journal is back!

Reports appeared in the popular media in March 2025 highlighting new evidence put forward in support of Lady Jane Grey Dudley as the sitter in a portrait included in an exhibition at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire. This article examines this evidence from an alternative perspective and reasserts the previous identification of the sitter as Mary Nevill Fiennes, Lady Dacre

A well-known portrait of Sir Arthur Hopton has failed to attract a convincing attribution – until now

Hogarth’s chose a ‘golden head’ of Anthony Van Dyck as the sign of his profession: a gilded cork bust that he created and placed over the entrance to his house at No. 30 Leicester Square. This article examines the significance of this symbol and explores Hogarth’s household and business activities on that site

The presence of Welshmen in the fourth scene of Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress has often been noticed. But the identity of the Welsh gentleman responsible for the arrest of the Rake has not been recognized, nor even speculated upon. He is identified here for the first time, and further ramifications of the introduction of references to Wales in Hogarth’s series indicate that the artist is pointing to the contemporary divisions within the Hanoverian royal family

In 1747 Canaletto painted a view of Windsor Castle which carries a tantalising note in its frame, the interpretation of which leads to an intriguing exploration of the circumstances in which the picture was made. The precise location where Canaletto was positioned to take the view is identified and the artist’s interaction with the Sandy brothers is examined

The life of Charles Philips (1703–1747) is fully traced here for the first time together with a full checklist of his works

The British Museum has an etching by Paul Sandby showing portrait heads of 54 men. There are two different contemporary sources for identifying the individuals, which are usually but not always in agreement. Almost all have been identified but this essay supplies three of the five missing names, and explores the world of those attending print auctions at the time

An Arthur Devis portrait at the French Hospital in Rochester, Kent, has long been thought to show the Huguenot Gainsborough Dupont, nephew of Thomas Gainsborough. Here it is identified as another autograph version of a portrait of William Hall, 2nd Viscount Gage

Ben Nicholson and Jim Ede each bought a great many paintings by Alfred Wallis soon after he was ‘discovered’ in St Ives, in the late summer of 1928. They paid what seem trivial sums of money for them. Were they taking advantage of a lonely, isolated, semi-literate retired sailor? This question has often been asked and there are many aspects to be considered when seeking the answer.

Carel Weight RA was an official war artist covering aspects of the Allied Forces’ occupation of Italy, Austria and Greece from May 1945 to February 1946. The long letters that he wrote to his partner Helen Roeder in London described his experiences

Lorenz Natter stayed in England from late 1745 until 1747. During this short time, he worked for British aristocrats, carving both intaglios and cameos. Among them was a most extraordinary ‘Vase on a small Diamond [engraved] for Lord James Cavendisch’ (d 1751). That gem was known only through a drawing. But the author has rediscovered the actual stone, which is here presented within the context of its realization.

The authors of a new catalogue raisonné of the oil paintings of Sheila Fell (1931–1979) make the case here for seeing her as a social realist. Andrew and Eleanor Bradley, Sheila Fell: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd 2025, pp488 col £195, ISBN 1848226322 / 978-1848226326

A portrait of Christabel Pankhurst, newly identified here, was exhibited at the Champ de Mars Salon in Paris 1912, while Pankhurst herself was on the run in the same city, hiding from the British police. The artist was Helen Darmesteter (1850–1940) who painted a number of British suffragettes. The article also reveals how the women’s suffrage movement was entangled with French art circles during the Belle Époque

One of Richard Dadd’s most ambitious works is called The Flight out of Egypt, but evidence produced here reveals its true subject and that it needs to be renamed