X-ray of painting reveals secret Van Gogh self-portrait


While preparing for an upcoming exhibition of impressionist art, conservators with the National Galleries of Scotland made a surprise discovery: what appears to be a self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh, behind the back of his 1885 painting "Head of a Peasant Woman."
In an interview released Thursday by the National Galleries of Scotland, senior paintings conservator Lesley Stevenson said paintings are routinely X-rayed, in order to gather "information about how the composition evolved, whether or not there were any changes. And lo and behold, we were quite surprised to discover a completely different painting in the X-ray image."
The self-portrait was on the back of "Head of a Peasant Woman," under several lawyers of glue and cardboard. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has studied the X-ray image and said it is "almost certainly" a Van Gogh self-portrait, and conservators are hoping to safely uncover the painting to confirm its authenticity.
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Due to financial constraints, Van Gogh regularly reused canvases, and several other self-portraits have been discovered on the backs of his paintings, particularly those done between 1883 and 1885, The Washington Post says. The National Galleries of Scotland obtained "Head of a Peasant Woman" more than 60 years ago, and say it was a study for the Van Gogh masterpiece "The Potato Eaters."
This was a stunning discovery, Stevenson said, but it was "extra special" because self-portraits "have a special quality — they're very enigmatic. They're giving us an insight into how [the artist is] thinking of themselves."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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