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What Lies Beneath: Revealing Painters' Secrets
Nov 06, 08 thru Mar 29, 09
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WHAT LIES BENEATH?
A question, a curiosity, or an obsession? A compulsion to know?
A craving to understand what great artists were thinking when they created master works?
Over several years, the Atheneum has been systematically examining many of the pictures in our collection using x-radiography and infrared imaging. Interesting artist changes not visible to the naked eye include such unexpected images as the portrait head of a woman wearing a large bonnet underneath Renoir’s Monet Painting in his Garden. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait reveals a seated peasant woman beneath the surface paint. (Both paintings will be exhibited as part of What Lies Beneath.) Many hidden compositions or artist changes dramatically alter the meaning and reading of the painting, and most have neither been published nor adequately discussed. This process is on going, with numerous other paintings expected to be examined in the future.
What Lies Beneath, a small but powerful exhibition, hopes to shed light on what is actually a more common phenomenon than previously thought. It will examine and interpret underimages of paintings from the collection, using x-radiography and infrared imaging from the perspective of both conservator and curator. Hidden from sight in some cases for hundreds of years, the images beneath the surface have increasingly become an important interpretive tool – with progressively more sensitive modern examination equipment and methodologies such as x-radiography and infrared reflectography allowing us to safely penetrate the paint film to discover the hidden treasures.
Not only will this exhibition showcase recent hidden discoveries made by the conservators, it will also bring together some of the Atheneum’s most important masterpieces. In addition to van Gogh’s Self Portrait and Renoir’s Monet Painting in His Garden, mentioned above, additional paintings included are Monet’s Beach at Trouville, Rousseau’s Landscape, among others. Funders
The Edward C. and Anne T. Roberts Foundation
Valassis
NewAlliance Foundation
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