2024-04-23
X-ray research methods in the history of art allows us to discover new secrets of great masters of art. This time foregoing method let us reveal new facts about Picasso's painting ,,The Crouching Beggar'' from 1902. The painting is a part of Ontario Art Gallery collection in Toronto.
Gallery with collaboration of Center for Scientific Studies of the University of Northwestern in Chicago, researched with x-ray Picasso's works from Gallery's resources. To the surprise of the researchers, under the actual picture, there is a hidden landscape picture a fragment of Barcelona. Unfortunately, the authorship of its has not been established so far. According to one of the researchers, Picasso used the previously existing contours to create the composition of his painting. Between the part with the landscape and the original painting there is also another layer. The medial part is the first version of the "The Crouching Beggar''. The discovery sheds new light on the Picasso's early blue period. Perhaps next studies will let us determine the author of the hidden landscape and will show Picasso in the hitherto unknown light.