The Dog Who Was Hidden in a Picasso Painting for Decades: Can You Find Him?

In recent days it has been discovered that a famous painting by Pablo Picasso hid a nice little dog in its lower part.

The work in question isThe Moulin de la Galette”. The Spaniard painted it in 1900 when he was living in France. The dog remained hidden for decades because, apparently, it didn’t convince the artist.

Of course, Picasso initially tried to quickly add the little King Charles to the work, but ultimately decided it would be best to cover him with multiple layers of paint.

The importance of restoration

Now the dog is visible because the work has been restored to be exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

The Guggenheim, but also the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery of Art in Washington took part in the works. Part of the restoration had to do with removing the dirt and paint from the paint.

The end result revealed subtleties of brushwork, new colors and allowed the discovery of an earlier version of the painting that included the aforementioned King Charles dog in the foreground.

The word to the specialists

Julia Bartencurator of painting at the Guggenheim, revealed that “Le Moulin de a Galette” underwent a full year of treatment.

Barten considered the work “critical to gaining a better understanding of this image” and to revealing the “quick punches he used to obliterate the dog”.

megan fountainthe museum’s curator, said it was a “surprise and a pleasure” to discover the hidden mascot.

“When we undertake image analysis we often don’t know that we are going to find something as interesting and enticing as a dog,” he said.

The painting will be on view until August 6 at the Guggenheim as part of the 10-piece ‘Young Picasso in Paris’ exhibition, which features some of the artist’s early work while living in France.

The Moulin de la Galette

The space that Picasso painted in the work “Le Moulin de la Galette” is the famous windmill located in the center of Montmartre in bohemian Paris.

After the French Revolution, the mill was transformed into a ballroom. Hence the party seen in the painting.

Picasso wasn’t the only one who painted “Le Moulin”. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent Van Gogh were other painters of the time who were also inspired by him.