Help? What's the title of this film? Anybody?

[Mammar]

okay - this is all I remember:
this couple were trying to track down the lost work of an artist? writer?
think the woman was something like a history professor. the story kept flicking from present day back to when he was alive in the late1800's and the events then. The artist? bloke was having a clandestine love affair which ultimately produced a child. The mother of the child didn't think that he knew but he did! He had met the child (in a field near her home, incidentally) and guessed who she was and gave the child a letter for her mother but the child lost it so the mother never found out that he knew.
Are you following this? I do hope so.
The history professor woman was played by a very well known blonde actress but can't for the life of me remember who. Help?

[LeMarchand]

"Possession" based on the novel by A.S. Byatt. great film. Blonde lady was Gwyneth paltrow.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256276/combined

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxZwDEXkUG4