A Cincinnati Art Museum painting held a secret for nearly 160 years.
Serena Urry, the museum's chief conservator, was inspecting Paul Cézanne’s "Still Life with Bread and Eggs," when she noticed a hidden surprise. According to CNN, cracks were concentrated in just a couple of areas, rather than evenly throughout the entire canvas. They also had flashes of white, which stood out in a painting from Cézanne's "dark" period.
Urry contacted a local medical company, which brought an X-ray machine to the museum. The scan revealed a well-defined portrait beneath the popular image of food and drink.
“I had a hunch,” Urry said in a statement.
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"Still Life with Bread and Eggs," made in 1865, was one of the only works Cézanne dated, so the hidden image could be the earliest portrait by the artist, the museum reported. The newly discovered image could also be a self-portrait of Cézanne, according to the museum, but that has not yet been confirmed.
