Pablo Picasso, “Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto,” 1901. Oskar Reinhart collection “Am Römerholz,” Winterthur, Switzerland
Painted in the fall of 1901, when Pablo Picasso was just 19 years old, Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto is one of the very first artworks from the painter’s Blue Period. The 124-year-old painting features Picasso’s friend and fellow Spanish artist Mateau Fernández de Soto, rendered in a monochromatic color palette that reflects Picasso’s low mood at that time. However, conservators at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London recently discovered that there’s more to this painting than meets the eye.
In collaboration with the Oskar Reinhart Collection, Am Römerholz, in Switzerland, The Courtauld took X-ray and infrared images of Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto ahead of its display as part of its latest exhibition, Goya to Impressionism. These images uncovered a hidden figure beneath the surface—a ghostly portrait of an unknown woman, likely painted just months earlier.
Picasso’s Blue Period was deeply shaped by the loss of his close friend Carlos Casagemas, who died by suicide earlier in 1901. After his death, Picasso took over his old rooms in Paris and turned them into his studio. During fall, his friend, the young Spanish sculptor Mateu Fernández de Soto, came to stay with him, and it was there that this portrait was painted. If you look closely at the background of Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto, you’ll see a painting on the wall—one of Picasso’s tributes to Casagemas, depicting his burial.
During this period, Picasso faced financial struggles and frequently reused canvases rather than discarding them. Instead of whitewashing previous paintings, he simply layered new compositions over them. While the X-ray image offers only faint tonal traces of the hidden woman, the infrared image reveals surprising details. She wears a chignon, a popular hairstyle in Paris at the time, and is posed with her elbows resting on the table, arms crossed in front of her. The Courtauld points out that she bears resemblance to several paintings of seated women that Picasso painted in 1901, including Absinthe Dinker and Woman with Crossed Arms.
The identity of the mysterious woman depicted beneath De Soto’s portrait remains unknown. The Courtauld suggests, “She may have been a model, a friend, or even a lover posing for one of Picasso’s colorful Impressionistic images of Parisian nightlife, or a melancholic woman seated in a bar.”
Using modern technology to uncover the hidden figure quite literally shines a light on a pivotal moment in Picasso’s career. Barnaby Wright, deputy head of The Courtauld Gallery, says, “Picasso’s way of working to transform one image into another and to be a stylistic shapeshifter would become a defining feature of his art, which helped to make him one of the giant figures of art history. All that begins with a painting like this.”
Check out the X-ray and infrared image of Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto below, and find out more about this fascinating discovery on The Courtauld Institute of Art website.
Conservators used X-ray and infrared technology on Picasso’s Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto to reveal a portrait of an unknown woman beneath the surface.
X-ray image of “Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto.” Department of Conservation, The Courtauld, London
Infrared image of “Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto.” Department of Conservation, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
The Courtauld Institute of Art: Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Source: Hidden Picasso portrait discovered beneath important painting from his Blue Period
Related Articles:
Modern Technology Reveals a Hidden Painting Underneath Picasso’s ‘The Blue Room’
The Evolution of Picasso’s Painting Style and What Each Artistic Choice Represents
Thousands of Pablo Picasso’s Pieces Are Now Available To View in New Digital Archive
Evolution of Picasso’s Iconic Self-Portraits From Age 15 to 90