Found covered in grime in a Portuguese auction house, a threequarter- length portrait of a dark-haired lady by Dutch artist Willem Wissing (1655-1709) has been restored to its former glory by a Belgian dealership and the identity of its sitter revealed as a British aristocrat.
The portrait, 4ft x 3ft 4in (1.23 x 1m), depicts the sitter dressed in a green cloak, seated against a dark curtain with a landscape and country house in the background. It went under the hammer in September 2020 at Cabral Moncada Leilões in Lisbon, where it was catalogued as ‘probably’ Wissing and the sitter said to be Mary of Modena, Queen Consort of England.