A SELF-PORTRAIT by Vincent van Gogh has been discovered in Scotland using x-rays.
Conservators scanned the artist’s 1885 painting, Head of a Peasant Woman, ahead of it going on show at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh on 30 July.
They found a hidden self-portrait by the painter on the other side of the canvas, buried beneath layers of cardboard.
Visitors will be able to see the x-ray as part of the exhibition.
Frances Fowle, senior curator of French Art at the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS), said: “Moments like this are incredibly rare.
“We have discovered an unknown work by Vincent van Gogh, one of the most important and popular artists in the world.
“What an incredible gift for Scotland, and one that will forever be in the care of the National Galleries.”
Head of a Peasant Woman entered the NGS collection in 1960, as part of a gift from an Edinburgh lawyer, Alexander Maitland, in memory of his wife Rosalind.
Dating from an early period in Van Gogh’s career, the painting shows a local woman from the town of Nuenen in the south of the Netherlands, where the artist lived from 1883 to 1885.
The self-portrait is believed to come from a later period, once the artist had moved to Paris and been exposed to the work of the French impressionists.
Read more stories on Scottish Field’s culture pages.
Plus, don’t miss Rosie Morton’s interview with Andrew Appleby – better known as “The Harray Potter” – in the August issue of Scottish Field magazine.
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