A pensioner has finally found a portrait of himself as a baby in his mother's arms on display in the national gallery in Cardiff after searching for 70 years.

Eighty-five-year-old Joseph Tregenza was just a few months old when his mother was asked to pose for well-known Edwardian painter Harold Harvey at the end of the First World War.

It's just amazing to see the painting after all this time

Joseph Treganza

He and his mother Annie were next-door neighbours to Harvey the Cornish painter who was a member of the Newlyn School of Artists in Penzance.

The work in oil called Mother and Child was loaned to the National Museum and Gallery in Cardiff in 1919 just a year after it was painted.

But Mr Treganza, a retired accountant from Guildford, Surrey, has devoted his spare time to looking for the work, scouring art galleries around the UK at weekends and in his holidays.

Finally, earlier this year he found an old book which said the oil painting, which is valued at more than £10,000, has been loaned to the national gallery in Cardiff.

"I rang the gallery and they said they still had it.

It had taken 70 years but I had finally found my painting," said the pensioner.

The gallery has had the work on loan since 1919

A private viewing in Cardiff was then arranged so Mr Treganza could finally glimpse the work he had sought for a lifetime.

"It's just amazing to see the painting after all this time.

"I've looked for years and years and at last found it.

"I cannot tell you how much it means to me. It was a great joy and relief to an old man."

A spokesman for the National Museum and Gallery said they were very pleased to have reunited Mr Treganza with the painting after so many years.

"Many of our paintings have a story behind them but this one is particularly special, " added the spokesman.