Fake or Forutne - SE7E02 - Toulouse Lautrec

Two sketchbooks found in a garden shed in Saint-Émilion were given to a teenage boy, Alain, by his grandmother in 1965. Although she never revealed their origin, they were thought to be the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Alain waited 50 years before presenting the sketches to the committee responsible for authenticating the work of Toulouse-Lautrec. The committee did not accept them as authentic and concluded they were the work of another artist René Princeteau. The sketchbooks contain images of women, horses, sailors, soldiers and dogs, not the subjects for which Toulouse-Lautrec is best known. Some of the pages are dated 1880, when Toulouse-Lautrec would have been just a teenager. The team travel to Albi in southern France, where Toulouse-Lautrec was born, and visit his family home, Chateau du Bosc, where he spent much of his youth. Compelling technical analysis is provided by print expert Harriet Stratis from Chicago who reports that the sketchbooks match those already known to be by Toulouse-Lautrec and that some sheets have tiny pin-pricks in each corner, which are a distinctive feature of the artist's hand. The committee does not provide a clear decision either way, but offers to re-examine the books at a later date.