Welcome to Art Detective

Through Art Detective, you can help us to discover more about the UK's public art

All the paintings featured in BBC's Britain's Lost Masterpieces were found on Art UK. Public collections around the country have many more artworks in need of research.
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Discussions

Browse the discussions below and contribute your knowledge.

Recent discussions

Artist London: Artists and Subjects, Portraits: British 20th C 75

What more can you tell us about the artist S. (Seóirse?) MacAntisonnaigh and who can be identified in this tea party?

Photo credit: : Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Artist Continental European before 1800 2

Forward If not Antoon Claeissens, who else might have painted this family saying grace?

Reverend Thomas Thirlwall of Bowers Gifford

Photo credit: : Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales

Subject or sitter Dress and Textiles, Portraits: British 18th C, Portraits: British 19th C 39

Is the artist identifiable and can this portrait be dated better than c.1780?

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Discoveries

These discoveries serve as an archive and are no longer being updated. For some of the more recent Art Detective discoveries, take a look at this Curation.

28 March 2019 — News

A ‘Carelli’ painting of a Middle Eastern Scene, but which Carelli?

Middle-Eastern Scene, drawing and watercolour on paper by Gabriel Carelli (1820–1900)
Photo credit: : Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum

21 February 2019 — News

On the trail of Harry Clifford Pilsbury’s portraits

Daniel Henry Redhead (b.1837), JP, Mayor of Peterborough (1895 & 1905), oil on canvas, attributed to Harry Clifford Pilsbury (1870–1925)
Photo credit: : Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery

15 October 2018 — News

Maritime location identified as Portosalvo, Naples, with the Church of Santa Maria

Portosalvo, Naples, with the Church of Santa Maria, oil on paper by Thomas Stuart Smith (1813–1869)
Photo credit: : The Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum

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