Category: Picasso

Hidden painting found under Picasso’s The Blue Room

On By A.P.In Art, blue period, hidden painting, Pablo Picasso, Patricia Favero, Picasso, The Blue Room, The Phillips Collection1 Comment


The Blue Room features a nude woman bathing in Picasso’s studio.


Infrared technology revealed it had another image below the surface.


When the image was turned on its side, it revealed a portrait of a man.

A hidden painting has been found by scientists beneath the brush strokes of The Blue Room, a 1901 Picasso artwork.

Art experts and conservators at The Phillips Collection in Washington used infrared technology on the masterpiece, revealing a bow-tied man with his face resting on his hand.

Picasso created both works in Paris during his famous blue period.

“It’s really one of those moments that really makes what you do special,” said conservator Patricia Favero.

Acknowledged as one of the 20th Century’s greatest artists, Pablo Picasso focused on monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and blue-green during his blue period from 1900 to 1904.

The Blue Room has been the subject of exploration since 2008 by experts from the Phillips Collection, National Gallery of Art, Cornell University and Delaware’s Winterthur Museum.

Improved infrared imagery allowed them to see a man wearing a jacket and bow tie, resting his bearded face on his hand with three rings on his fingers.

Technical analysis confirmed the hidden portrait was likely to have been painted just before The Blue Room.

Favero added that, having found the second image back in 2008, they then wanted to know who the man was.

“We’re still working on answering that question,” she said.

Curator Susan Behrends Frank told press agency AP: “When he [Picasso] had an idea, you know, he just had to get it down and realise it,” explaining that the artist had quickly painted over another completed picture when the inspiration took him.

“He could not afford to acquire new canvasses every time he had an idea that he wanted to pursue. He worked sometimes on cardboard because canvas was so much more expensive.”

The Blue Room has been part of the Phillips Collection since 1927.

Conservators suspected back in 1954 it may have had another painting below its surface, as brushstrokes did not match the composition of a woman bathing in Picasso’s studio.

But it was not until the 1990s that an X-ray revealed a “fuzzy image” of something under the main image.

Research on The Blue Room will continue and curators have planned a 2017 exhibition focusing on the painting and the portrait beneath it. It is also part of a tour to South Korea in 2015.

This is not the first time a hidden image has been found beneath a Picasso artwork.

A technical analysis of La Vie at the Cleveland Museum of Art revealed he had reworked the painting’s composition, while a moustached man was found beneath the painting Woman Ironing at Manhattan’s Guggenheim Museum.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-27884323

Surprise Picasso discovered in Evansville, Indiana museum

On By A.P.In Evansville, Indiana, Picasso, Raymon Loewy, Seated Woman With Red Hat1 Comment

The surprise discovery of a rare work of art by Pablo Picasso, stored 50 years in its collections, could bring spectacular returns for the Evansville Museum.

Nobody knows yet how much “Seated Woman with Red Hat,” the layered, fired glass piece Picasso created in the 1950s, might bring at a private sale, but the museum’s members have decided it’s too expensive to keep.

They voted Tuesday to sell the art privately, through a New York auction house, on recommendation of the board of directors.

“Now that we have a full understanding of the requirements and additional expenses to display, secure, preserve and insure the piece, it is clear those additional costs would place a prohibitive financial burden on the museum,” said R. Steven Krohn, president of the Museum’s board of trustees.

Other work by Picasso has commanded record prices at auction. A 1964 painting Picasso finished in one day sold at auction for $106.5 million at auction in 2010, setting a new record.

It’s unclear how much the Evansville Museum’s piece might fetch, as it is a completely different medium created in a collaborative process.

“Seated Woman with Red Had” is a rarity for Picasso, believed to have made 50 or more works in a colored, fused and fired-glass between 1954 and 1956.

The piece, donated to the museum by industrial designer Raymond Loewy in 1963, was originally believed to be inspired by a Picasso painting, but not executed by the artist. It sat in storage for a half century before a query from an art auction house revealed its creator.

 

Thanks to Beth Pieper for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.