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I saw the picture on a market stall...

This 'vintage market' was an informal saturday market in Hadleigh, Suffolk. It took place during summer 2018 on the second saturday of the month. This was, I think, the last one; August 2018. The stall with the picture was the second or third east of the former 'bank' building. It was a hot and bright day and I was casually looking around whilst my wife was shopping.

I saw the picture crumpled and dirty. I spoke to the vendor, a lady, who was keen to sell it, probably keen to sell anything because there were not many buyers around. I asked her what it was but she had no idea. We spoke briefly about restoration. She was going to glue the canvas onto a piece of wood. I saw it as a restoration project but had too much to do to take it on. She said she only wanted £X.

Apart from saying that she bought it from a lady at a car boot sale, it was part of a house clearance and found in the attic, no other detail was offered. I declined to purchase it on the grounds that I was too busy to restore it and besides, as I had never restored a canvas before, it would require a lot of new learning.

I walked on. After half an hour or so my wife joined be at the market ready to go home. Just before we passed the stall I felt sorry for the picture and for the lady who it seems had sold very little. I took the £X out of my wallet. Arriving at the stall I saw that the lady had almost completed packing her things away into her car and was just about to put the picture in. I handed her the money and took the picture saying that I felt sorry for it and would take it as a future project.

Later that day I carefully dusted it off, laid it flat and taped it back onto the stretcher. I scanned it, made it a temporary frame and hung it on a spare patch of wall. I was curious to know what it was (I took some photos so that I had pictures of it on my phone) but having other things to do left it at that.

I say that 'I did not find the picture - it found me'.

The research followed from it.