Painting missing for 60 years found in Millbrook attic and handed to Wrenhaven Art Gallery

A painting of the Old Quay that disappeared from Wrenhaven's former town hall more than 60 years ago has been found in an attic in Millbrook. This afternoon the family who found it handed it to Wrenhaven Art Gallery. Curators are still examining the canvas and say more details will be released over the coming days.

The oil painting, known from old catalogues as Evening Tide, Old Quay, shows fishing boats drawn up below the warehouses of Ropewalk Lane in low winter light. It is thought to have been painted in the 1890s by Edith Marrable, a local artist whose harbour scenes are now held in several regional collections. It hung in the mayor's parlour until the building was refurbished in 1963, and after that its whereabouts were unknown.

The canvas was found by Gwen Tallis, a retired nurse, while she cleared her late uncle's house on Coldharbour Lane. It was wrapped in an army blanket behind a water tank, with a council inventory label still tacked to the back of the frame. "I nearly put it out with the rest of the boxes," she said. "Then I saw the label and the date and thought, this belongs to somebody."

Checks under way

The gallery's senior curator, Dr Helena Prowse, said the label matched a 1958 council inventory held in the city archive, and that early checks of the brushwork and canvas were "very encouraging". The painting has some flaking along the lower edge and a layer of yellowed varnish, but no tears. A full technical examination will be carried out before the work is formally added to the collection.

It is rare for a lost picture to come home with its paperwork still attached. We owe Mrs Tallis a real debt.

How the painting came to be in the attic is not yet clear. Mrs Tallis said her uncle had worked as a removals man in the 1960s and never mentioned it. The city council said it had no wish to look into the matter further and was simply glad the work had been returned.

The gallery hopes to show the painting briefly before conservation begins, possibly as early as next month. Dr Prowse said a date would be announced once the condition report was complete, and that anyone with photographs of the mayor's parlour from before 1963 was invited to get in touch.