A dog in Picasso's painting? 120 years later, museum discovers the 'paw-some' surprise

A dog has been discovered underneath the layers of paint in an early Pablo Picasso masterpiece, more than 120 years after it was first created, reported CNN news. According to the media reports, the fluffy animal has been hidden underneath a patch of dark paint in Le Moulin de la Galette, completed by the Spanish artist in 1900 when he was 19 years old. This discovery comes after experts used modern imaging technology on the painting, revealing a brown dog wearing a red bow around its neck. It is to be noted that the painting has been exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, as part of an exhibition about the painter’s formative years in Paris. 

'Brown dog wearing a red bow' spotted in Picasso's painting 

While talking about the new find in the painting, Julie Barten, the senior paintings conservator at the Guggenheim Museum, said that she had always had “a strong intuition that there was something under there”, reported CNN news. Further, she added, "What we know is that in many instances, Picasso painted aspects of the composition and then subsequently obliterated them and transformed them into other compositional elements. This was really part of his practice." The senior paintings conservator explained that if the spectators view the painting with their naked eye closely then they would be able to identify and spot the dog. “There’s red paint showing through in areas and if you look really closely you can see the eyes and the ears. You can see that when concealing it, he actually left the contour of the head still visible,” said Julie Barten as per The Guardian.  

Meanwhile, Megan Fontanella, the museum’s modern art curator, said that she has been surprised by this new discovery. “It completely changes how one would have encountered this picture," said Fontanella while talking about the Picasso painting findings. Further, she added, "You would have seen this really quite adorable dog in the foreground, looking almost directly at the visitor with this wonderful red bow. One can only speculate why Picasso would have concealed this. But certainly, now my eye is drawn to all these wonderful figures in the composition.”