Hidden dog spotted in Picasso's 1900s painting, says New York museum
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New York: The depiction of a dog has been discovered in Pablo Picasso's 1900 painting "Le Moulin de la Galette." The animal was hidden beneath layers of paint.
Now, the Guggenheim Museum in New York has spotted the lap dog seated by a table with a few drinkers.
Megan Fontanella, a curator at the Guggenheim, called the discovery a "surprise and a delight". "When we embark on an analysis of a picture. We don't often know we're going to find something so interesting, enticing as a dog," she said.
The painting is on display here till 6 August 2023 as part of the 10-piece exhibition titled 'Young Picasso in Paris'. It features his early works from the time he lived in France, reported the New York Times.
They think the dog was removed because the ribbon proved too "enticing" and distracted the eye from the blurred dancers in the background.
"It was interesting to me that he hastily painted over this dog, which would have been a rather compelling aspect of the composition," said conservator Julie Barten. Conservators used X-ray fluorescence to find the dog and now the animal can be seen clearly. Experts think that it may be a Cavalier King Charles spaniel with a red ribbon around its neck, reported CNN.
The painting had undergone a year of treatment to restore, remove grime and varnish, and reveal subtleties like brushwork, colour palette, and spatial definition. These would have gone unnoticed before. "That process was critical to gaining a better understanding of this picture and to revealing the quick strokes he used to obliterate the dog," said Barten.
Talking about finding the dog, she said: "We could certainly make out that there was something there. But we couldn’t say what it was at the time."
"We know that Picasso was doing this in his earlier work. He often leaves these kinds of vestiges of earlier compositions," said Fontanella. "It was really a part of his process to be constantly transforming one thing into another and often leaving clues about what lay underneath," added Barten.
