Fake or Fortune?: Renoir

SYNOPSIS

Nicky Philipps, an artist who has previously painted portraits of the royal family, seeks help in determining whether a mysterious painting housed at Picton Castle in Pembrokeshire is a genuine work by celebrated French Impressionist Pierre Auguste Renoir. Picton Castle is the ancestral home of Nicky's family, and her aunt used to tell an intriguing tale that the picture in question came from Claude Monet's house in Giverny, and was originally a gift given to the artist by Renoir himself. Fiona Bruce heads to Monet's home to determine whether this rumour is true, and investigates contrasting academic opinions on whether the painting is genuine. Meanwhile, Philip Mould travels to the Parisian suburb of Argenteuil and to Berlin to make use of cutting-edge technology to determine whether the pigments in Nicky's picture match up with those listed as being used by Renoir.