Quest to Find Crying Girl in Painting Found in Hanwell
Man who purchased picture back in the eighties wants to identify sitter
The picture has been hanging in the owner's bathroom for over 40 years
October 24, 2024
A man who bought a painting in Hanwell in the eighties is seeking to identify the girl who sat for the picture.
Stew Wilcox had not long moved with his family into a small-terraced house and was enjoying walking around the area discovering things about the place and its history.
A short distance from his new home was a series of railway arches under the Great Western Railway, in in one of these was a second-hand furniture store run by an elderly man from Poland.
He went with his family to see if they could find some pieces to furnish their house and were on the point of leaving empty handed when something caught Stew’s eye.
He said, “I noticed a small portrait painting of a young girl propped up behind a big sofa where few people would spot it. I took a closer look, it had two tears in it; one in the front of the sitter and one in the side. They looked like someone had purposely done them. Still the picture intrigued me. It was unsigned, roughly finished in the lower section, but that ‘look’ in the sitter’s face, just what did that say? ‘I’m bored’? ‘I’m thinking of something far away’, ‘I need to get home and feed my cat’. I really could not tell, but she was so pretty, so intriguing, so mysterious, and the painter had captured all of this.”
The shop owner agreed to sell the painting for two pounds, but Stew was so taken with it that he paid a professional artist to repair some hole damage which ended up costing him more than fifty times the original purchase price.
Given the nature of the painting in which the girl appears topless, it was thought best to hang it in the en-suite bathroom away from the children’s eyes.
The full length of the portrait which has been hidden form the children's view in an en suite bathroom
Forty years later it is still in a bathroom in Stew’s home and continues to intrigue him.
He says, “Still pretty, still intriguing, still mysterious. Who is this sweet girl? Who is this painter who could capture her so succinctly? Someone must know her, someone must know the painter by his style. Who are they? We don’t know, but we really want to know. Can you help identify them? Please help if you can.”
The girl would now be in her fifties and may not be keen to be reminded of the painting but, if she was local, and anybody recognises her, email editor@ealingtoday.co.uk and we will pass on the details.
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