ARTIST
Australian Art Galleries
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Did You Know?
"Edgar Degas’s painting Portrait of a
woman is an enigmatic piece. When it was first acquired by the
National Gallery of Victoria in 1937, it was unveiled to mixed
reviews.
Some commented that it showed the hallmarks of the French painter’s
style around the 1870s. Others criticised its brown hues and the
apparent discolouration across the woman’s face.
Little did they know at the time that the painting held a secret:
there was another portrait of a woman, inverted, lying just under
the surface. Some of the discolouration was due to this other
ghostly figure bleeding through.
It appears that Degas abandoned this earlier work and repurposed the
canvas for the newer portrait. But when did he paint the first
woman? Who was the model?"
(Source: The Conversation)
This was the challenge taken up by the Australian
Synchrotron with strong collaboration with the CSIRO and the
National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).
Read about their findings and how they found out!
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Other Resources
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