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X-ray technique unveils mystery second figure in Degas painting
Painted around 1876, Edgar Degas' Portrait of a Woman seemed just that -- an otherwise ordinary female depiction in the artist's moody style. But as it aged in the 1920s, people started noticing a mysterious second figure emerging from beneath the first. Curious but wishing to avoid damaging the painting, conservators used a new X-ray technique to peer beyond the top layer of paint, detailed in a new paper in Scientific Reports. This unveiled a never-before-seen portrait of a woman they believe to be frequent Degas model Emma Dobigny.
