A painting of a chimney sweep spotted hanging in the Bowes Museum in County Durham has ben identified as an early Dick Van Dyke.
The portrait was first spotted in the BBC Your Painting gallery by keen cartoon fan six year old Josh Heggarty from Oxford and has since been verified by experts as a Van Dyke.
The painting depicts a chimney sweep accompanied by a number of scruffy street urchins dancing on the rooftops of a South Kensington house somewhere around the turn of the century.
Previously the appalling cockney accent affected by the chimney sweep depicted in the painting was said to be so bad that everyone assumed it must be a fake but language experts said it was undoubtedly an early attempt by Van Dyke.
The painting was not considered important and lay in the museum vaults covered in soot before being spotted by young Josh.
Van Dyke was considered to be one of Hollywood’s finest character actors, starring in over 50 films but is best known for his role as Dr Mark Sloan in the hit TV series Diagnosis:Murder, a medical/crime drama series said to have been inspired by the American actors otherworldly attempts at speaking cockney
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Van Dyke accent 'not a fake'
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