Early portrait denied by Lucian Freud shown for first time after authentication

Man in a Black Scarf (1939) will be shown publicly for the first time in an exhibition at the Garden Museum in London. Photograph: The Garden Museum

An early portrait by Lucian Freud, which the artist denied was his for years, is to be exhibited for the first time after experts proved it was painted by him.

Man in a Black Scarf was created in 1939 by the British artist when he was still a student at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in Hadleigh, Suffolk. The sitter is thought to be John Jameson, a friend of Freud’s and scion of the whiskey family.