It is not uncommon for prominent figures to have their imperfections airbrushed out of history.

But Admiral Lord Nelson’s facial scarring and missing eyebrow will now be presented in all their glory, after the the discovery and painstaking restoration of a “lost” painting, which included the removal of paint that had covered up to maritime hero’s blemishes.

Part of a series of portraits of the famous admiral painted by Italian artist Leonardo Guzzardi in 1799, the painting was last publicly seen in a newspaper article in 1897.

The painting was rediscovered from an American private collection by art dealer and presenter of BBC programme Fake or Fortune, Philip Mould. On discovering the painting, he found Nelson's missing eyebrow, and some of the scarring he sustained at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 had been painted over.

The injuries to the Royal Navy's most famous hero were caused by flying metal during the battle and were a crucially significant part of Guzzardi's original characterisation than many later portraits.