THE mystery of who painted two 'grotesque' portraits owned by Dorset County Museum appears to have been solved.

Museum chiefs appealed last month for information on who was behind the paintings of two unknown women copied from frescos painted on the walls of Woolbridge Manor, near Wool.

Officers, who described the portraits as "grotesque" made the appeal because research at the museum had failed to shed any light on who was responsible for the portraits, which feature in the exhibition Dorset People Dorset Places.

Judy Lindsay, director of the museum, said several names had been put forward as the person responsible for the pictures including Emma Hardy, the first wife of Thomas Hardy. But now following an appeal in the Echo, Hardy expert Vera Jesty has revealed that the artist behind the portraits was probably Hardy's sister Mary.

Ms Lindsay said: "Vera Jesty, who lived at Max Gate - the house Hardy built for himself and in which he died - for 22 years has been hunting through her personal archive. Vera remembered that she had come across something pertaining to the paintings at some point. She has now found the reference in the diaries of a Professor Donald Winslow, who writes about going to see Kate Hardy in 1938."

The professor's diary reveals that while visiting Miss Hardy, she showed him several portraits by Thomas and their sister Mary.

An extract from the diary reads: "She showed me many interesting paintings by both Thomas and her sister. The portrait which is the frontispiece of the Dynasts hangs in the hallway. Another upstairs. Pictures copied from the Woolbridge Manor - horrible portraits that frightened Tess.

"Miss H told me how she and her sister went over to the Manor when 'Tess was hot' and finding the house empty went, in while her sister hastily sketched the two awful portraits and later painted them."

Ms Lindsay said: "It would seem that it was Mary Hardy who painted the pictures, and that she and her sister broke into the Manor House when it was empty, and the mystery of who painted the portraits is finally solved."

The Dorset People Dorset Places exhibition runs until March 26.