NINE- TEENTH CENTURY MODEL THOUGHT TO BE STILL ALIVE SHOCK VICTORIAN WATERCOLOUR AT CENTRE OF LONGEVITY MYSTERY
	"Portrait of Miss McCambridge" by SIR EDWARD JOHN POYNTER, Bt., P.R.A., R.W.S. (1836-1919)

A watercolour thought to be painted by eminent Victorian artist Sir Edward John Poynter has been pulled from the forthcoming sale of Victorian Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours at Sotheby's in London, after it was suggested that the picture may be a modern fabrication. The picture, signed and dated 1865, is inscribed upon the reverse "Miss McCambridge, Bloomsbury, 3 sittings, 2/- 6d". Poynter, who went on to become President of the Royal Academy, was initially influenced by the work of the Pre-Raphaelites. The watercolour depicts a pretty girl in an elaborate garden wearing a long renaissance style gown. It is believed that the same model was used by Poynter's friend Millais, for his painting of 'the Martyr of the Solway' a few years later (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool). Sotheby's resident British Art expert, Martin Gallon, noticed something peculiar about the Poynter watercolour. "I recalled seeing the same picture at an auction five years ago, catalogued with the title 'Beware, trust her not, she is fooling thee'. Upon closer inspection I noticed that the girl in the picture was fishing goldfish out of the ornamental pond and stuffing them up her skirts. This was not how ladies behaved in the 1860s." When the painting was submitted for sale at Sotheby's last month, a more alarming discovery was made. One of the British Pictures department's research team recognised the model as Julie anne McCambridge, a pop singer who had played a concert a week earlier at a nearby pub. A subsequent study of photographs at the singer's website and the inscription upon the back of the watercolour confirmed Gallon's original suspicions that this was no ordinary picture. But if the painting is merely a modern fake, how did the same model find her way into a well-documented picture by Millais? Further investigation into the appearance of singer Julie anne McCambridge has led to the unusual discovery that she does not appear to have aged at all since her first promotional photographs were issued ten years ago. Her press manager Dan Clapton was circumspect when approached about the mysterious watercolour. "All I know is that when she first came to us in the 1990s she said that she was a bit like that bloke in the Highlander films; I thought that she meant by this that she was Scottish." Subsequent investigations by the Special Art Fraud Squad and a search of Miss McCambridge's home in London have uncovered a treasure trove of nineteenth century paintings, love letters addressed to her by Victorian artists, a collection of regency playbills and a library of seventeenth century occult books. Release of her new album has been postponed, pending further enquiries by MAFF into allegations of cruelty to goldfish.

SOTHEBY'S.COM
sponsored by
Galloon City