New Insights on Picasso’s Blue Period Painting La famille Soler

ABSTRACT

The study of La Famille Soler using non-invasive imaging, molecular, structural, and elemental analysis allowed the re-examination of changes of the work. Considered as the earliest of Picasso’s versions of Le déjeuner sur l’herbe by E. Manet, evidence suggests that an underlying landscape painted by Vidal in 1903 also referred to Manet’s masterpiece. On the other hand, new results suggest that the cubist sketch undertaken by Picasso in 1912, prior to the current blue background, could be an uncompleted transformation of Vidal’s landscape into synthetic cubism. Through study the main pigments used in the underlying compositions were successfully identified.

KEYWORDS:

• Hyperspectral imaging
• MA-XRF
• Picasso’s blue period
• pigment identification
• underlying composition

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank Jean-Marc Gay, Director of the museums of Liège, for his commitment that greatly assisted this research. The authors would also like to express their gratitude to Régine Remon, formerly Head Curator of the Fine Art Museum of Liège (BAL), for providing the archival records of La famille Soler.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Catherine Defeyt http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0972-2347

Peter Vandenabeele http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5285-9835

David Strivay http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9009-7958

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Belgian Science Policy Office and Université de Liège.