A guest on the BBC's popular television show Antiques Roadshow was left completely speechless after learning the surprising value of a painting by renowned Northern Irish artist Gladys Maccabe. The dramatic reveal took place during a recent episode filmed at the historic Shuttleworth House in Bedfordshire, England, where local residents brought their prized possessions and artwork for professional evaluation by the show's team of specialists.
Art expert Frances Christie examined the vibrant oil painting, which depicted a lively beach scene filled with people and children riding horses. "This is such a vibrant scene of loads of people gathered on a beach with lots of children riding on horses. It's unmistakably the style of someone called Gladys Maccabe, who was probably Northern Ireland's most famous 20th-century artist," Christie explained to the guest and viewing audience.
The painting's backstory added a touching personal element to the evaluation. The guest revealed that the artwork had originally belonged to an elderly couple who were close friends of her parents. "When they passed away, we were invited to choose an item that we'd like to keep and that just appealed to me," she shared, explaining how the colorful piece came into her possession.
Christie went on to provide detailed background information about the pioneering artist. "Colour and life, that is what Gladys Maccabe was all about. She was quite a pioneering artist for her time. She nearly lived to the age of 100, she was born at the end of the First World War, so 1918," the expert noted. She explained that Maccabe had studied at an art college in Belfast shortly before World War II, where she truly "came of age" as an artist.
The art specialist highlighted Maccabe's significant contributions to promoting female artists in Northern Ireland. "She was a pretty amazing person, she really recognized in Northern Ireland that there was a wealth of female talent and so she founded something called the Ulster Society of Women Artists, and she was its first president. So, she was a real promoter of her fellow artists," Christie explained, emphasizing the artist's role as a trailblazer for women in the arts.
Turning her attention to the technical aspects of the painting, Christie provided a detailed analysis of Maccabe's distinctive style and technique. "It's very typical for her style. It's oil on board. She was really confident with her color and her line," she observed. The expert noted how "she's used a black pigment to highlight the shapes of the horses and the people, and then she's used lots of different bright strokes to bring out the colors of both the sea in the background and the shore in the foreground."
Christie further described the painting's composition, saying, "And then it's almost like a panoramic pattern of clothes in the midground, and I think it really draws you in." Her detailed analysis demonstrated the sophisticated artistic techniques that made Maccabe's work so distinctive and valuable.
The moment everyone had been waiting for arrived when Christie revealed the painting's estimated auction value. She disclosed that the artwork could realistically achieve between £1,200 to £1,800 at auction, a valuation that left the guest utterly stunned and speechless. "Well chosen!" the expert declared enthusiastically, to which the still-shocked guest managed to respond: "Okay, good! Yes, it is, yeah. Thank you very much."
This episode joins a growing collection of memorable Antiques Roadshow moments featuring Northern Irish items and artists, continuing to highlight the region's rich cultural heritage and artistic legacy. Viewers can catch up on this and other episodes of Antiques Roadshow, which remains available for streaming on BBC iPlayer.
