Image:Goya Portrait- Forgery.JPG

Portrait of a Woman, 18th-19th centuries. Oil on canvas, 62.23 cm. x 48.26 cm. Fogg Art Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop, 1943.

This portrait of Maria Isabella de Bourbon, infanta of Spain (1741-1763), thought to be painted by Goya was bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum in 1943. Although the canvas was old, and the paint bore the crackle marks of age, several scholars came to doubt the painting’s authenticity.

In 1954, X-ray images were taken of the painting and conservators were surprised to find an earlier portrait of a different woman beneath the surface. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the presence of zinc white paint, which was invented after Goya's death. Thorough cleaning of the painting confirmed that the surface paint was relatively modern and had been applied so as not to obscure the craquelure of the original. Curators also discovered extensive damage to the base portrait; leading some to speculate that the forger attempted to scrape off the earlier face.

Upon completing the analysis, the conservators left the work as you see it above (with portions of the original painting visable, on the left, and the newer forgery on the right), to illustrate the intricacies of art forgery, and the inherent difficulty of detecting it.

(It is thought that the base painting is a provincial Spanish work dating to the 1790s). [1]

[2]

Base painting, 1790s. Over painiting, unknown, but thought to be from the late 19th century.

Imitator of Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

see below