Courtauld conservators uncover hidden figure in Picasso portrait

A newly discovered figure in painting by Pablo Picasso, hidden for more than a century beneath its final version, has been revealed by conservators at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

The conservators used x-ray and infrared technology to examine the 1901 work, Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto, for the first time. The research has now revealed what appears to be a female figure not present in the final piece.

The figure, thought to be a woman, was likely created just a few months earlier, The Courtauld said of the newly discovered figure.

It explained: “The form of her head, curved shoulders and the fingers can clearly be seen. Wearing a distinctive chignon hairstyle, fashionable in Paris at the time, she bears a resemblance to several paintings of seated women that Picasso made that year”, including ‘Absinthe Drinker’ and ‘Woman with Crossed Arms’.

“She might have been a figure painted in his earlier Impressionistic style, akin to the painting of a woman in shimmering colours called Waiting”, it said in a statement.

The research was conducted in collaboration with the Oskar Reinhart Collection, ‘Am Römerholz’ in Switzerland. It was undertaken ahead of its display as part of the upcoming exhibition ‘Goya to Impressionism. Masterpieces from the Oskar Reinhart Collection’ which opens this weekend at The Courtauld Gallery.

“We have long suspected another painting lay behind the portrait of de Soto because the surface of the work has tell-tale marks and textures of something below,” added Barnaby Wright, Deputy Head of The Courtauld Gallery.

“Now we know that this is the figure of a woman. You can even start to make out her shape just by looking at the painting with the naked eye.

“Picasso’s way of working to transform one image into another and to be a stylistic shapeshifter would become a defining feature of his art, which helped to make him one of the giant figures of art history. All that begins with a painting like this.”

Aviva Burnstock, Professor of Conservation at The Courtauld said the type of specialist imaging technology used by its conservators “may allow us to see the hand of an artist to understand their creative process. In revealing this previously hidden figure we can shed light on a pivotal moment in Picasso’s career.”