(ANSA) - ROME, JULY 14 - A Van Gogh on the back of another VanGogh.
It is the discovery announced by the National Galleries of Scotland and which will be at the center of an exhibition "A Taste for Impressionism" scheduled from 30 July to 13 November in the Scottish museum.
The self-portrait, says LesleyStevenson, Senior Painting conservator of the museum, was accidentally discovered on the back of "Peasant's Head" (1885) one of the three paintings by Van Gogh owned by the museum, when this, just in anticipation of the exhibition that opens a few days later, he underwent a series of radiographic investigations.
"Hidden from view for over a century, the self-portrait is covered with layers of glue and cardboard," the museum explains.
To save money, moreover, the great Dutch artist often used canvases.
"Except that instead of repainting on previous works he turned the canvas and worked on the reverse," said a spokesperson for the museum.
So it must have happened in this case too.
At the beginning of the 1900s, however, the main painting, Head of a Peasant, was loaned to be exhibited in an exhibition.
And it was then that, perhaps to give the canvas more thickness, the artisans who had to frame it decided to cover it with a layer of cardboard glued on the back.
With the result that the painter's self-portrait, which with all probability had been painted a couple of years after the Head of Countina, was lost.
Experts from the NationalGalleries are now evaluating the possibility of bringing the hidden painting back to the light as well.
"We are trying to figure out how to do it without damaging the Peasant's Head," they explain.
At least then we must be content to read the hidden image inside a lightbox that will be at the center of the exhibition.
The X-ray image shows a man with a beard and a brimmed hat, a handkerchief tied around his neck that could also be a bow tie.
The pose is similar to that of other Van Gogh self-portraits, with the subject's eye appearing to stare directly at the viewer, the right side of the face in shadow, the left ear highlighted.
X-ray image shows a man with a beard and a brimmed hat, a handkerchief tied around his neck that could also be a bow tie.
The pose is similar to that of other Van Gogh self-portraits, with the subject's eye appearing to stare directly at the viewer, the right side of the face in shadow, the left ear highlighted.
X-ray image shows a man with a beard and a brimmed hat, a handkerchief tied around his neck that could also be a bow tie.
The pose is similar to that of other Van Gogh self-portraits, with the subject's eye appearing to stare directly at the viewer, the right side of the face in shadow, the left ear highlighted.
(HANDLE).
