Portraits of a husband and wife painted by Gainsborough are set to be reunited for Valentine's Day after spending 100 years apart.

In 1767, Thomas Gainsborough was paid the equivalent of £4000 to paint landowner John Bragge and his wife Elizabeth, and the paired portraits remained together for the next 140 years.

However, the paintings of the married couple have since remained apart for more than a century. Now, the Bragges are now set to be reunited in time for Valentine’s Day.

John Bragge was a Dorset landowner who married Elizabeth in 1762 at Bath Abbey. Their paintings were made five years later by Gainsborugh, who had taken up residence in the popular spa town of Bath in an attempt to support himself more comfortably with commissions from the wealthy.

The artworks were held by the Bragge family until 1909, when they sold to separate buyers in the US, where they remained until John’s likeness was bought by the Dorset Museum in 1983 and returned to the UK.

The portrait has hung alone in the museum for decades, however, in 2022 the portrait of Elizbaeth was bequeathed by a Mrs Delia Brinton to the Charities Aid Foundation America, which has now loaned the painting to the Dorset Museum.

The reunited portraits of the married couple will be unveiled on Valentine's Day, and may remain together for the duration of the loan, currently set at three years.

Elizabeth Selby, director of the museum, said: “It is wonderful to see the husband and wife portraits together again as we celebrate St Valentine.”

Ms Selby said: “We are thrilled to have taken guardianship of this important painting by Thomas Gainsborough, and delighted to reunite it with its companion piece in the Museum’s Artists’ Dorset gallery.

“They are part of an important collection of Georgian portraits held by the Museum, through which the society of 18th century Dorset can be better understood.

“We are grateful to CAF America for their work in facilitating the transfer and transportation of the artwork from the USA to Dorset.”