Mysterious Portrait of a Woman Discovered Beneath Painting from Pablo Picasso's Blue Period

Historians recently made an unexpected discovery while examining one of Pablo Picasso’s paintings. 

When taking X-ray and infrared images of a "portrait depicting Picasso’s sculptor friend painted in 1901 and one of the earliest examples of the artist’s Blue Period," conservators at The Courtauld Institue of Art in London discovered that underneath the portrait was a painting of a woman.

Historians found the artwork hidden in Picasso’s “Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto," which is currently part of an upcoming exhibit, according to a press release.

The newfound painting was likely created a few months before Picasso started his official portrait.

"Picasso often reused his canvases at this time because he did not have much money. However, he also embraced the process of painting one work over another, resisting whitewashing old images in favour of beginning a new figure directly on top of an earlier one," the institute wrote in the news release. "It is as if the portrait of de Soto grew out of the figure of the woman below as one style gave way to another. "

“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,” added Barnaby Wright, deputy head of The Courtauld Gallery.

“We have long suspected another painting lay behind the portrait,” he continued. “The surface of the work has tell-tale marks and textures of something below. 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.”

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The woman’s head, curved shoulders and fingers are easily seen in the portrait. Viewers can even make out the women’s chignon hairstyle — a popular hairdo at the time. Further evidence suggests there is another head at a lower level of the painting, suggesting the canvas might have been reworked multiple times. 

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Although the figure of the woman is clear, her identity is not, according to the institude.

The painting closely resembles other Parisian women that Picasso painted that year, and experts say it could be “a model, a friend or even a lover.”

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At just 19 years old, Picasso arrived in Paris in May 1901. He started the year favoring a lively Impressionistic style with bright colors. Later in the year, he entered what is known as his Blue Period — a more somber and contemplative style. Historians often point to the suicide of Picasso’s friend Carlos Casagemas as the inspiration for the new period.

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See the “Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto” as part of the Goya to Impressionism exhibit at The Courtauld Institute from Feb. 14 to May 26.

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