The Last Gift

A French setting, a 20th century artistic trailblazer, a tale of endurance and generosity - and a potentially huge price tag.

Art sleuths Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould return to investigate a painting thought to be by the French artist André Derain who, together with De Vlaminck and Matisse, was part of the trailblazing ‘wild beasts’ art movement known as the Fauvists.

The painting is a colourful landscape, bought for around £26,000 in 1969 from Christie’s, and believed for decades to be an early 20th century work by artist André Derain. But this work is more than exciting art history - it brings with it a moving story of love and survival.

At his Richmond home, lawyer Peter Reynolds reveals a personal mission to wrap up the estate of the late Marianne Kewan – a former Kindertransport child who escaped Nazi Germany. Marianne was the childless widow of art lover Paul Kewan, a survivor of Auschwitz who, having lost his first wife and child to the Nazi concentration camps, went on to become a successful UK businessman. This painting is the remaining asset of her estate, and Peter has approached Fiona and Philip in a last-ditch attempt to ascertain if it can be sold as a Derain. If so, its sale could generate hundreds of thousands for charity.

The problem is that although this work was bought as genuine, it was left out of the catalogue raisonné for Derain, as created by Michael Kellerman. A certificate by Kellerman from 1968 is referred to in documentation but crucially has not been found. Since then, he has died, and a new Derain committee is in place. With absence of firm evidence, the painting’s status – and the Kewan’s legacy – is in limbo.

The spectre of forgery cannot be ignored. Derain is notoriously popular with famous fakers, fooling many known dealers into losing vast amounts of money. Our art sleuths get to work. Philip commissions artist John Myatt to recreate Marianne’s painting and ascertain if it is a likely subject for dastardly deeds. He and Fiona travel to France to revel in Derain’s works, home and studio, scouting locations for the landscape painting. Further provenance clues emerge. But will technical and artistic analysis provide enough evidence to convince the Derain committee? And with Fiona and Philip’s help, will Peter be able to ensure a lasting legacy from Marianne’s last gift to the nation that embraced her?