Beneath the Blue Period

Picasso: Painting the Blue Period explores the life and work of the young Pablo Picasso from 1901-1904 as he travelled between Paris and Barcelona. In addition to showing the artistic and political motivations behind Picasso’s signature Blue Period style, the exhibition offers profound technical insight about three Blue Period masterworks, highlighting the important role of science in uncovering data about paintings and their underlying layers. 

Leading up to the exhibition, a multi-year international research project was conducted on the AGO’s two Blue Period paintings, utilizing advanced imaging technology to reveal exciting new information hidden below their surfaces. As part of this project,  Picasso: Painting the Blue Period curator Kenneth Brummel and AGO Conservator Emerita Sandra Webster-Cook teamed up with the Senior Imaging Scientist at the National Gallery of Art (Washington), John Delaney, a renowned scientist known for his work with hyperspectral infrared imaging. 

On Thursday December 9th, Brummel and Webster-Cook will welcome John Delaney for a discussion about their research and findings, including related work on two paintings in Japanese collections. Ahead of the conversation, we connected with Delaney to find out more about his unique role at the National Gallery of Art, and his time researching the Blue Period.        

AGOinsider: You are the Senior Imaging Scientist at the National Gallery of Art. What types of technologies do you use as an imaging scientist?  What is a typical day at work for you at the National Gallery?

Delaney: We have been adapting remote sensing camera systems originally designed by the geophysical community for identifying and mapping mineral deposits using reflectance imaging spectroscopy. These systems were developed in the mid-1980s and are now being used to map minerals on the Moon and more recently Mars.  Since paintings are painted with pigments which are either derived from minerals or materials whose reflectance properties also differ throughout the visible to infrared spectral range, we can use the same approach to study paintings.  A key difference in our application is the paint layers are quite thin (10s of micrometers) and by going into the infrared (750 to 2500 nanometers) we can penetrate the paint layers which cover prior painted compositions, which is often the case in Picasso’s Blue Period paintings.   This allows us the ability to acquire spectral image data that we can process with various mathematical tools to give the conservators and curators new images of these prior paintings to study.

Our work consists of two parts. The first is going into the lab and collecting the hyperspectral image cubes--hundreds of images of the painting from the visible to the short-wave infrared (400 to 2500 nm).   We do this using specialized hyperspectral cameras we have optimized for examining paintings. We might take 25 to 50 spectral image cubes of a given painting, depending on its size.  Then we spend several days working up the image data sets on a computer to make image products for the conservators and curators to study. While it is all rewarding, the time spent going over the results with the conservator and curator is the most fun.

courtesy National Gallery of Art

AGOinsider: Can you share a significant or memorable discovery you’ve made while working on one of the National Gallery of Art’s paintings during your time as that institutions’ Senior Imaging Scientist?

Delaney: One of the most memorable was revealing an underlying portrait of a woman underneath Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s A Young Girl Reading (c. 1769) from the National Gallery of Art’s collection. By using reflectance imaging spectroscopy and x-ray induced fluorescence imaging spectroscopy we were able to show that the original painting showed a woman looking out towards the viewer, and not a young woman in profile reading a book.  The woman looking out towards the viewer is much more consistent with Fragonard’s Fantasy Figure paintings.  Moreover, this original version of the painting matched one of the quick sketches that had been recently discovered on a Fragonard drawing.  The technical study closed out a lingering mystery about this painting.

AGOinsider: The National Gallery's former Senior Conservator of Paintings, Ann Hoenigswald investigated many Blue Period works by Picasso using X-radiography, Infrared Reflectography and IR Reflectance Imaging Spectroscopy with you.  Do you see your work as a continuation of her research on Picasso?  And if so, how?

Delaney: Yes, the work started by Ann Hoenigswald helped uncover many of the images beneath Picasso Blue Period paintings.  Our early work in improving the cameras for infrared reflectography helped in her studies at that time. Our goal now, and that of others, is to develop new imaging instruments that can answer questions such as how finished these original paintings were and what they looked like before Picasso abandoned them.

AGOinsider: What was your most memorable moment collaborating with Kenneth Brummel and Sandra Webster-Cook?

Delaney: Having the opportunity to witness Kenneth’s excitement when realizing the connection between the changes and features we found in the Picasso painting The Soup (1903), in the AGO’s collection, and several important Picasso drawings. With Sandra it was the travel to Hakone, Japan, to study the Picasso painting Mother and Child by the Sea (1902) at the Pola Museum of Art and the finding of the transferred newsprint on the painting with their curator, Keiko IMAI.

Don’t miss Picasso: Scanners and Secrets happening live via zoom Thursday Dec 9 at 4pm. This is a free event, register here.  

Picasso: Painting the Blue Period is on view now until January 16, 2022. Curated by Kenneth Brummel and Dr. Susan Behrends Frank, Picasso: Painting the Blue Period is co-organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto and The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC with the exceptional support of the Musée national Picasso-Paris.