Podcast

On the Air with Colin

Stephen Kornhauser
Chief Conservator
Wadsworth Atheneum

Ulrich Birkmaier
Senior Painting Conservator
Wadsworth Atheneum

Overview

A question, a curiosity, or an obsession? A compulsion to know? A craving to understand what great artists were thinking when they created master works?

Over several years, the Atheneum has been systematically examining many of the pictures in our collection using x-radiography and infrared imaging. Interesting artist changes not visible to the naked eye include such unexpected images as the portrait head of a woman wearing a large bonnet underneath Renoir’s Monet Painting in his Garden. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait reveals a seated peasant woman beneath the surface paint.

"What Lies Beneath" will be showing at the Wadsworth Atheneum through March 29th, 2009