The sketch that reunited an artist with her long-lost son after 44 years

• ITV News Anglia's Claire McGlasson went to meet the pair.

An artist has been reunited with her son for the first time in 44 years - after he recognised a sketch of himself on the internet.

Ian Verge had been searching for his biological mother when he came across a portrait of her and a sketch of himself as a baby.

The pictures, which had been drawn by Mary Husted, are part of a display at the Real Families exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Ms Husted was forced to give up her son for adoption in 1963.

She hoped by getting involved in the exhibition she would be put back in touch with her son.

“It was very shocking then for a ‘nice’ girl to have a baby out of marriage so my family decided to send me away," Ms Husted told ITV News Anglia.

After she gave birth and was told she had a son, they had just 10 days together before he was taken away. 

Mr Verge said: “As I looked at him and I studied him – I think every mother studies her newborn - the way he held his hands when he slept, the shape of his nose, the cleft chin.

"And I had to draw those because I knew I’d forget a lot of them.”

After it went on display at New Hall in Cambridge University, Mr Verge saw it online and emailed Ms Husted.

“It was clearly a message to me and it was about me," he said.

After seeing the email, Ms Husted did some research and discovered that Ian had given his son the name Luke - the original name she had chosen before her son was renamed by the family who adopted him.

Susan Golombok, curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum, said the exhibition was intended to encourage and celebrate inclusivity and "make us reflect on how much has changed".

The Real Families: Stories of Change exhibition is due to run until January.