Scotland stands out as home to one of the largest collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in the world. Several Scottish collectors invested their savings in the innovative and radical works of art of the second half of the 19th century, including paintings by Van Gogh, Degas, Gauguin, Claude Monet or Matisse that became world famous over the years.
In an effort to pass on that legacy, the National Gallery of Scotland has scheduled an exhibition called A Bit of Impressionism that will start on July 30 in Edinburgh and run until mid-November. What nobody had foreseen, however, is that the star painting of the exhibition is a self-portrait by Vincent Van Gogh… hidden under the image of a peasant woman.
The famous Dutch artist, author of up to 800 paintings and 1,600 drawings, created the Head of a Peasant Woman in 1885. In principle, one more work within his extensive range of compositions that includes The Starry Night (1889), Sunflowers (1888) , The bedroom in Arles (1888), The round of the prisoners (1890) or The potato eaters (1885).
His work also includes many self-portraits. With a bandaged ear and easel (1889), with a gray felt hat (1887) or with a dark felt hat on the easel (1886) are some of the most outstanding. Now Scottish researchers have found a new one thanks to X-rays.
The specialists of the National Gallery were X-raying all the paintings that were part of their Impressionist exhibition when they came across the mysterious image, according to a statement. Hidden from view for more than a century, the work is on the back of the canvas Head of a Peasant Girl, covered by layers of glue and cardboard.
Van Gogh used to reuse canvases to save money. Instead of painting over earlier works, however, he would turn the tapestry over and work backwards. Conservators believe that the glue and cardboard covering the self-portrait were added before an exhibition in the early 20th century (probably 1905).
“The process of removing the glue and cardboard will require delicate conservation work. Research is being carried out on how this can be done without damaging the Head of a Peasant”, explain the researchers, who are confident of being able to maintain both compositions.
Until the process ends, the public will be able to enjoy the tantalizing discovery through a phantasmagorical –and also captivating- X-ray image through “a light box specially designed for it”. The self-portrait shows a bearded Van Gogh, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a scarf loosely tied around his neck.
The image fixates the viewer's attention with an intense gaze, with the right side of her face in shadow and her left ear clearly visible. The occult painting is likely to have been made around 1887, during a key moment in the artist's career, when he was exposed to the work of the French Impressionists after moving to Paris in March 1886.
"The experience had a profound effect on the painter from the Netherlands and was a great influence in adopting that more colorful and expressive style of painting that is so admired today," they point out.
On his move to the French capital, Van Gogh “brought small canvases with him”, where he began to explore portraiture during 1887, and in particular the self-portrait, explains Lesley Stevenson, curator of paintings at the National Gallery of Scotland. "He didn't have much money and his brother Theo - who supported him financially - was out of town," so he "started painting on the back" of his old paintings.
The hitherto unknown work becomes part of the select group of 'secret' works painted on the back of canvases from the Nuenen period (two years in which he painted more than 200 paintings when he moved with his family to this municipality near Eindhoven).
Five examples of these paintings are in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, but there are also others in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Wadsworth Atheneum Art Museum in Connecticut and the Kunstmuseum Den Haag in The Hague.
