X-ray reveals hidden Degas portrait

A reconstruction of the image discovered beneath Degas’ Portrait Of A Woman after it was scanned with a particle accelerator (above). PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/ NATURE/DAVID THURROWGOOD

PARIS • Researchers used superX-ray vision to peer beneath the surface of a portrait by French impressionist Edgar Degas and gaze upon the model whose likeness he painted over nearly 140 years ago, they reported on Thursday.

The woman, whose image Degas turned upside down before using it as a base for a new painting, was probably Emma Dobigny - a favourite model of 19th-century French artists, the team announced.

"This has been a very exciting discovery," said Mr David Thurrowgood, conservator at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, where the painting hangs. "It is not every day that a new Degas painting is found, in this case, hidden in front of us."

The existence of the "underpainting" has been known since about 1920. A vague, ghostly figure has been slowly emerging.

The hidden image "has long been considered to be indecipherable" without damaging the surface painting, the research team wrote in the journal Scientific Reports.

A reconstruction of the image (above) discovered beneath Degas' Portrait Of A Woman after it was scanned with a particle accelerator. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/ NATURE/DAVID THURROWGOOD

Enter the Australian Synchrotron in Victoria, a particle accelerator which generates radiation for highresolution imaging in research, therapy or forensic analysis.

The light it produces "is a million times brighter than the Sun, many orders of magnitude greater in power and intensity compared to standard, hospital-like X-rays", synchrotron scientist and study co-author Daryl Howard said. "Because of the brilliant light, we are able to reveal unprecedented structural detail of any material."

Using a technique called X-ray fluorescence, the team members became the first people since Degas to gaze upon his model's face. Comparing the image to other paintings, they concluded it was likely "a previously unknown portrait of the model Emma Dobigny".

Dobigny, whose real name was Marie Emma Thuilleux, modelled for Degas in 1869 and 1870 when she was about 16. The black-clad woman remains unknown. Her portrait, which dates a few years after the original, about 1876-1880, is titled Portrait De Femme (Portrait Of A Woman).

Degas had not applied a new basecoat and used thin layers of oil-based paint which are now losing their "hiding power", said the authors.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 06, 2016, with the headline X-ray reveals hidden Degas portrait. Subscribe