Abigail’s detective work may have discovered missing painting for biographer
Detective work by a Shropshire art specialist may have discovered the missing piece of a jigsaw for noted British biographer Michael Holroyd.
Abigail Molenaar, from Halls Fine Art in Shrewsbury, believes she has found a portrait by artist Robin Goodwin of the ‘Lady in blue dress’, the mistress of Michael’s late grandfather, Fraser Holroyd, who caused a scandal when he left his family for her in 1926.
The portrait was listed in the will of Agnes May Beaumont-Thomas and she is believed to have been the sitter.
Michael wrote a book, ‘Mosaic’, published by Little, Brown in 2004, about his research into the mysterious and elusive femme fatale, who was born Agnes May Bickerstaff in St Helens.
The book is full of revelations and secrets about Agnes May who married three times, disowned her family and constantly changed her family history.
During his painstaking research, Michael discovered that there are two paintings of Agnes May in existence, but he managed to locate only one of them.
