Hugh Blaker and the Old Masters: The connoisseurship of the man who discovered the Isleworth Mona Lisa

This essay provides access to and context for the little-known activities of the early-twentieth century art dealer-collector Hugh Blaker and the influence he sought to exert on art history through his discovery of what he declared to be an earlier version, not a copy, of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, executed in part by the Master himself. Based on original research, the argument establishes a profile of Blaker as a promoter of modernism and dealer in Old Masters whose connoisseurship was rooted in a regret that he lacked the single-mindedness of vision that could have enabled him to succeed as an artist.