A “LOST” Pre-Raphaelite painting discovered in Bournemouth is expected to fetch up to £5,000 at auction.

The rare and previously unrecognised watercolour is by Charlotte Wyllie who was associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of Artists that flourished in the 1870s.

The watercolour, entitled The Ballad of Sir David Graeme, will be offered in a two-day sale of fine art and antiques at Surrey auctioneers Ewbank Clarke Gammon Wellers, incorporating Riddetts of Bournemouth, on December 15 and 16.

Fine art valuers Steve Ozier and Tim Duggan of auctioneers Riddetts made the exciting discovery when they were called in to examine the work by its owner.

He told the pair that he had picked it up for around £600 at a small Bournemouth auction six years previously.

The painting is based on a ballad by 19th century Scottish poet, James Hogg about a fair lady who waits for her lover to rescue her from her father and brothers on St Lambert’s night.

Finally her lover’s faithful dog leads her to the spot where she finds her lover slain by her family.

Charlotte Wyllie exhibited at London’s Grosvenor Gallery, a flagship for the Aesthetic Movement which launched in 1877 as a liberal alternative to the Royal Academy and one of the few to encourage women artists.