July 14, 2022
A Hidden Van Gogh: Self-Portrait Found Lurking Behind Another Painting
Conservators in Edinburgh X-rayed a Van Gogh and found the artist staring back at them from the other side of the canvas — a self-portrait hidden for over a century.
It is the kind of discovery curators dream about. While preparing a Van Gogh for exhibition, conservators at the National Galleries of Scotland took a routine X-ray of 'Head of a Peasant Woman' — and found a previously unknown self-portrait of the artist staring out from beneath layers of glue and cardboard on the reverse.
Van Gogh was famously frugal and often reused canvases, painting new pictures over old. At some point the self-portrait was covered up and forgotten, sealed behind backing applied for an early 20th-century exhibition.
The face that emerged — bearded, intense, one ear bandaged in the now-familiar way — sent a ripple of excitement through the art world. It is a reminder that even the most studied artists can still surprise us, and that masterpieces sometimes hide in plain sight.
Image: “Vincent van Gogh - Self-Portrait - Google Art Project (454045)” — Vincent van Gogh, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.