A painting of a naked woman by Pablo Picasso that has been hidden beneath one of his 'Blue Period' masterpieces for more than a century, has been recreated by UCL scientists using a combination of X-rays, AI and 3D-printing.
PhD researchers Anthony Bourached (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) and George Cann (UCL Space and Climate Physics) have developed a five-step technology to reproduce art works, that have been painted over.
For this, their third reproduction, they bought back to life the Spanish artist's depiction of a crouching nude woman; the painting was thought to have been lost until 2010 when x-rays revealed it lay behind The Blind Man's Meal.
Dubbed 'The Lonesome Crouching Nude', the image is also depicted as an unfinished painting in the background of Picasso's famous La Vie (The Life).
By using a combination of spectroscopic imaging, artificial intelligence, and 3D printing, the duo have created a full-size, full colour painting, which includes 3D textured brushstrokes.
To help ensure the recreation was as close in look, feel and tone to the original, they developed an AI algorithm that analysed dozens of Picasso's paintings, and trained itself to understand the artist's style.
Commenting Bourached, who is researching Machine Learning and Behavioural Neuroscience at UCL, said: "We believe that Picasso likely painted over this piece with reluctance. It was common for his blue period work as it was early in his career, and materials were expensive.
"Furthermore, its appearance in the background of one of his most famous blue period pieces, La Vie, indicates that it was likely significant to him.
"I believe Picasso actively welcomed such forensics, since he himself said; "I just painted the images that rose before my eyes. It is for other people to find the hidden meanings". Like Leonardo imagining the helicopter, was Picasso envisioning technology that could recall his lost or incomplete work? It is certainly a hidden secret that La Vie points to."
The Blind Man's Meal hangs in the Metropolitan Museum in New York and is hailed as one of his most important works following its completion in 1903. Art scholars had known of the earlier work 'crouching nude' as it appears in La Vie of 1903, on display in the Cleveland Museum of Art.
