The Art Detectives

Grosvenor and Dabiri travel to Devon to investigate a small portrait of Rembrandt in the collection of a National Trust house, Knightshayes Court. The painting is thought to be a later copy of a Rembrandt self-portrait, but Bendor believes it is actually a study for the finished picture, made by Rembrandt himself.

At the Manchester Art Gallery, Grosvenor finds a painting of a country gentleman from the 1770s that he believes has been misattributed to Nathaniel Dance. He feels certain that it is the work of German painter Johann Zoffany, a favorite portraitist of the royal family under King George III.

Petworth House in West Sussex, one of the great baroque treasure houses of England, yields two paintings warranting investigation: a portrait once attributed to Rubens that Grosvenor thinks is by Anthony Van Dyck, and a portrait of a young cardinal “in the style of” Titian, which he believes may be by Titian himself.