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Experts Have Discovered a Hidden Portrait by Magritte Underneath Another Famous Painting by the Artist
A portrait of a mysterious woman has been found underneath a painting by Magritte thanks to the use of infrared reflectography. The sitter is believed to have been his wife Georgette. Magritte eventually painted over the portrait with La Cinequième Saison (The Fifth Season) (1943), and it remained hidden for 80 years. The surface painting, […]
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What Opulence Lay Behind Marie Antoinette’s Secret Bedroom Door? The Palace of Versailles Has Just Reopened the Queen’s Hidden Chambers
Shortly after her arrival in Versailles in 1770 to marry the future king of France (at the age of 14), and especially upon assuming the throne in 1774, Marie Antoinette set about claiming the apartment at the Palace of Versailles as her personal domain, complete with several concealed chambers accessible through a secret door in […]
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A Tiny Bavarian Town in Germany Might Have a Previously Unknown Work by Lucas Cranach the Younger Hiding in Its Collection
A painting of Christ belonging to the church of St. Salvator in the quaint Bavarian town of Bettbrunn—population 261—may be the work of German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Younger. The attribution is straightforward: in the painting’s upper portion and directly beneath the year 1570, written out in Roman numerals, are the letters “L.C”. This […]
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Is Time Travel Real? Here Are 6 Tantalizing Pieces of Evidence From Art History
When tourist Fiona Foskett saw what looked like modern footwear in a centuries-old painting during a recent visit to London’s National Gallery, she laughed it off. Portrait of Frederick Sluysken, by the 17th-century Dutch master Ferdinand Bol, depicts the son of a wine merchant holding a goblet. “I said to my daughter, ‘Hold on, is […]
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Conservators Have Discovered a Cute Dog, Adorned With a Red Bow, Hidden Under the Layers of a Picasso Painting
Fifty years after his death, Picasso’s oeuvre still holds thrills—like the suspected image of a dog that a team of conservators just discovered beneath the surface of his Parisian nightlife scene La Moulin de la Galette (1900). Picasso’s take on the thrumming titular Bohemian hotspot plays centerpiece to “Young Picasso in Paris,” the Guggenheim’s contribution […]