Royal connection for Signs Express (Dundee)
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Signs Express (Dundee) has recreated a portrait of the Queen Mother (then Duchess of York) which went missing from an Angus Council collection in 1975.
The portrait was painted by Australian artist James Peter Quinn in 1931 was purchased by the Misses Macdonald of London and Windmill House in Arbroath and donated to the Arbroath Library in 1934. It remained in the library until the outbreak of the second world war when it was removed to Hospitalfield House for safekeeping. There it stayed until 1975, but while the frame survived, the painting had disappeared.
Signs Express (Dundee) was contacted by Angus Council - the original owners - to help in the bid to locate the famous portrait. It is hoped that the recreation which is featured at the Meffan Museum in Forfar will jog memories as to its whereabouts within the region where it is rumoured to reside.
The portrait which has been digitally printed on art canvas using the centre’s wide format printer, was taken from an old black and white photograph of the original. The photograph was then digitally enhanced and colourised by the Signs Express (Dundee) team to restore its original beauty and painting style from the early 1930s.
Signs Express (Dundee) centre owner Jim Bain said: “We recently invested in a wide format digital printer which has made it possible to reproduce such high quality imagery from photography. It’s a great sense of achievement to be in a position to help create a little piece of history. I had seen in the press that there was a local search for the portrait and now that the original frame has been found and used to frame the print, I hope that someone will come forward with news of its whereabouts.”
Despite considerable amounts of publicity, the painting, valued at an excess of £25,000, remains elusive. There is currently a £1000 reward out for the return of the original. So get searching those Attics!