An appeal has been launched at Haworth to find long-lost art treasures.

Professor Ann Sumner, director of the Bronte Parsonage Museum, is seeking the public’s help to trace over 20 paintings by landscape artist Thomas Fearnley.

She and a fellow art historian, Professor David Jackson, issued the appeal during a talk in the Bronte village about Fearnley.

The Norway-born artist – whose grandfather had emigrated from Heckmondwike in the late 18th century – visited Yorkshire and the Lake District in 1837 to explore his roots and during that time produced 24 oils on paper, none of which can now be traced.

Fearnley left the pictures, of the Yorkshire Moors and Dentdale, behind and died shortly afterwards aged 39 without reclaiming them.

“It’s likely his beautiful, detailed paintings still hang in someone’s house or are stored in an attic somewhere,” said Prof Sumner.

Prof Sumner can be contacted on ann.sumner@bronte.org.uk or write to her at the Bronte Parsonage Museum, Church Street, Haworth BD22 8DR.