Museum curators were keen to find out more about the artist after her painting was selected by people living with dementia to feature in a new exhibition.
The painting, thought to have hung in a local solicitor’s office for many years, will be on show at Chelmsford Museum from March.
Claire Willetts, the museum’s curatorial and learning officer, said the exhibition featured all-female artists.
“When I discovered that twice as many women have Alzheimer’s disease – the most common type of dementia – compared to men, this theme of female artists became even more valuable,” she said.
“It became an opportunity for us to raise awareness of these troubling statistics as we work with those directly affected by dementia.”