Phillips Collection find a mystery man under a Picasso's The Blue Room

"The Blue Room" 1901, one of Pablo Picasso's first masterpieces sits under a microscope at The Phillips Collection, on Tuesday, June 10, 2014, in Washington. Scientists and art experts have found a hidden painting beneath the painting.

Advances in infrared imagery reveal a bow-tied man with his face resting on his hand, with three rings on his fingers.

Now the question that conservators at The Phillips Collection in Washington hope to answer is simply: Who is he? It’s a mystery that’s fueling new research about the 1901 painting created early in Picasso’s career while he was working in Paris at the start of his distinctive blue period of melancholy subjects. | Evan Vucci, Associated Press

David Leffel, 1931 | Baroque Era style painter

David A. Leffel is a twentieth-century artist who paints in the classic Flemish /Dutch old master style, much in the manner of Rembrandt* or Chardin. His subject matter is Still Lifes, Landscapes, Portraits and figures, but the real subject of his work is the light as it gently drifts from one object to another. It pauses here, then moves on.

"Light is the concept of the painting"
- David A. Leffel.

Hans Thoma | Symbolist painter

Hans Thoma (1839-1924) was a German painter. He was born in Bernau in the Black Forest, Germany.

Having started life as a painter of clock-faces, he entered in 1859 the Karlsruhe academy, where he studied under Schirmer and Des Coudres.

He subsequently studied and worked, with but indifferent success, in Düsseldorf, Paris, Italy, Munich and Frankfurt, until his reputation became firmly established as the result of an exhibition of some thirty of his paintings in Munich.

He died in Karlsruhe in 1924 at the age of 85.

Daniel Graves, 1949 | Florence Academy of Art

American painter Daniel Graves was born in Rochester, New York. Graves graduated from the Maryland Art Institute in 1972 where he studied with Joseph Shepard and Frank Russell.

He continued his studies at the Villa Schifanoia Graduate School of Fine Art in Florence, Italy, with Richard Serrin.

Following a course of training with Richard Lack in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he taught at the Atelier Lack Studio of Fine Art.

In the late 1970s, Graves returned to Florence and undertook individual study with Nerina Simi, who maintained a classical nineteenth-century studio. Ms. Simi was the daughter of the Florentine painter Filadelfo Simi, who had studied with Jean-Leon Gerome, the head of the French Academy in Paris in the 1870s.

Stephen Bauman, 1980 | Figurative painter

Stephen Bauman was raised in Miami, FL and now live and work in Florence, Italy. Hi teach painting and drawing at the Florence Academy of Art, under the direction of Daniel Graves.

Stephen Bauman began his studies at The Florence Academy of Art in 2004. To Stephen, skill in drawing is fundamental, and among the most important assets a painter can possess. In his four years as a student he worked to understand the relationship of drawing to painting in the same way his teachers at the Academy understood it.

Robert Henri | Ashcan School painter [Part 2]

Robert Henri ~ Ashcan School painter [Part 1] ||| Robert Henri ~ Ashcan School painter [Part 3]

Robert Henri🎨 (1865-1929) was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School of American realism and an organizer of the group known as "The Eight", a loose association of artists who protested the restrictive exhibition practices of the powerful, conservative National Academy of Design.

For biographical notes on Robert Henri see Part 1🎨.

For earlier works by Robert Henri see Part 3🎨.

Fredric Michael Wood, 1944 | Impressionist painter

Fredric Michael Wood is a "Signature" Member of Oil Painters of America, and Associate Member of the American Impressionist Society.

In short, I've been a professional artist for the past 30 years. In that time I have paticipated in numerous national and regional exhibitions, and have been fortunate to have garnered some recognition along the way. My painting "Offshore Breeze" was selected for the 2002 30th Anniversary Issue Cover of Southwest Art.

Michael is the recipient of numerous Regional and National awards, and been featured in several publications including the Cover Art for the 2002 Southwest Art Magazine Anniversary issue. His work is collected internationally.

Jeffrey T. Larson, 1962 | Figurative painter

Jeffrey T. Larson was born in Two Harbors, Minnesota and grew up in the Twin Cities.

At the age of seventeen he began his classical studies with traditional atelier training under Richard Lack at the Atelier Lack in Minneapolis, MN.

Following his four- year training at Atelier Lack (1980-1984), Larson studied the work of the masters in the United States and abroad.