A 19th century work of art by Edgar Degas contains a secret portrait hidden on the canvas. A team of Australian scientists using X-ray fluorescence scanned the ‘Portrait of a Woman’ by 19th century French impressionist Edgar Degas and found that it contained an abondoned portrait of another woman beneath the visible image. The New Daily reports: Portrait of a Woman, painted between 1876 and 1880, has long been known to have a concealed painting underneath its surface, but the details have always been a mystery — until now. By applying a non-invasive, rapid, high-definition X-ray fluorescence (XRF) mapping technique, scientist Daryl Howard, from the Australian Synchrotron, and fellow researchers were able to reveal the hidden woman in clear detail. The researchers have even made an educated suggestion about who the woman is — French model Emma Dobigny who Degas reportedly had a special fondness for. “When we finally got the image … to us, the model we found looked very similar [to Emma Dobigny],” Dr Howard said. “There are several paintings of her by Degas in various museums and galleries around the world and just by visual comparison it looked very much like her. “But it will very interesting to [...]
