The First Post:Tucked away in the municipal art gallery in Exeter is a self-portrait by Gainsborough's master, Francis Hayman, one of the finest painters of Georgian England.
The oil painting, acquired in 1963, was long thought to be incomplete. Following an astonishing piece of detective work by the art dealer Philip Mould, the missing half of the original painting has been discovered in an obscure gallery in rural New Hampshire. The two sections will be reunited tomorrow.
The newly discovered section of the portrait is of a woman believed to be Hayman's first wife, probably painted in 1735. Nothing is known about her, other than that the marriage came to an acrimonious end.
It is believed that whenHayman and his wife separated he vented his spleen by ripping the painting in two.
