Britain's Lost Masterpieces

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BBC Four HD

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Series tracking down lost and hidden paintings from local museums and galleries.

Series 2

BBC Four

Bendor Grosvenor

Emma Dabiri

David Starkey

Tern Television Productions Ltd

Brendan Hughes

Harry Bell

Britain's Lost Masterpieces: Series 2: Episode 3: Carmarthenshire

Carmarthenshire

Episode 3

Episode 3: Carmarthenshire

BBC Four - Britain's Lost Masterpieces, Series 2, Carmarthenshire

In Carmarthenshire, could two portraits have been painted by Peter Lely, or someone else?

In Carmarthenshire, could two portraits have been painted by Peter Lely, or were they by someone else instead? Dr Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri investigate.

Carmarthenshire County Museum is a slice of history in itself. The building that houses it has been in continuous use since the 13th century. Once a bishop's palace, it was where the Bible was first translated into Welsh. But could it also be home to some mysterious cases of mistaken identity and two lost paintings from the time of Charles II? 

Dr Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri travel to Carmarthenshire to investigate two intriguing portraits of a local nobleman and his wife, the Earl and Countess of Carbery, possibly painted by the great Sir Peter Lely in the 17th century.
 
Yet all is not as it seems - Bendor has a hunch that one of the portraits is by another hand. Could the portrait of the countess be a lost work by Mary Beale, Britain's first commercially successful female artist?
 
While Bendor gets to grips with the badly damaged portrait of the earl, Emma traces the story of how he survived the Civil War, how Mary Beale was written out of the history books, and discovers how the cross-dressing men of the Rebecca Riots stormed Carmarthen.

Britain's Lost Masterpieces: Series 2

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BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

Tracking down lost and hidden paintings from Britain's local museums and country houses.

Series tracking down lost and hidden paintings from Britain's local museums and country houses, with art sleuth Dr Bendor Grosvenor and social historian Emma Dabiri.

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Britain's Lost Masterpieces

Series 2

Episode 3: Carmarthenshire

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