US researchers find a landscape of the Spanish-Uruguayan score under 'Poverty crouched'.
It was discovered thanks to the use of advanced fluorescent X-ray technology.
"This technology has allowed us to enter the artist's mind and understand what the creative process was like," they say.
On the left, 'Poverty crouching', by Picasso. On the right, the image treated with X-rays showing a hidden work Pablo Picasso's painting La Misereuse Accroupie conceals a painting of a landscape that would have been made by the Hispano-Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres-García, according to a study presented this Saturday by Northwestern University and the Art Institute of Chicago.
This work, hidden in a painting belonging to the Blue Period of the Malaga creator, was discovered thanks to the use of an advanced fluorescent X-ray technology that allows "non-invasively" to deepen each layer of the canvas, according to the authors of the study. the annual meeting of the American Association for Scientific Advancement, in Austin (Texas).
A professor at Northwestern University (Illinois, United States), Marc Walton, explained that "the friendship relationship of both artists and the similarity in the use of techniques" suggests that the original painting belongs to Torres-García (Montevideo 1874-1949).
After the first findings in 1992, the experts noticed that there were colors that did not agree with Picasso's painting, as well as certain strokes in the hand of the figure in the painting, which made us think that it was a reused sheet.
"This new technology has allowed us to enter the artist's mind and understand what the creative process was like," explained the university professor.
Walton explained that Picasso used the landscape "as a source of inspiration" to draw the feminine form, taking as reference the hills in the background that would become the outline of the back.
Currently, Poverty Crouching (1902) is exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada.
Also in sculptures
For its part, the director of conservation and engineering at the Art Institute of Chicago, Francesca Casadio, said they also applied this innovative research technique in 39 bronze sculptures of the author, focusing on the time of the Nazi invasion in Paris. Casadio commented that they decided to study that time because "in those moments the Germans stole the heavy metals for their infrastructures", and nevertheless, "the art centers catalog these sculptures as elaborated in said material".
The technique of X-rays allowed to know that Picasso used several more ductile materials such as clay or plaster, to later apply a bronze coating.
"Science allows us to see what is inside the sculptures, how they were made and when they were made," said Francesca Casadio.
In this regard, the dean of the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Northwestern University, Julio Ottino, confirmed that thanks to this portable technology they can study the pieces without having to move the works from their place.
For Ottino, this fact favors the cooperation between scientific institutions and art, with the aim of trying to discover how the inspiration of the artists materialized.