Hidden portrait discovered beneath Cézanne's still life at Cincinnati Art Museum

A hidden portrait, possibly a self-portrait of Paul Cézanne, has been discovered beneath his 1865 painting 'Still Life with Bread and Eggs' at the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) in Ohio. The discovery was made by chief conservator Serena Urry during a pre-conservation examination. She noticed unusual crack patterns concentrated in two specific areas, revealing glimpses of white paint inconsistent with the dark tones of the still life. Urry arranged for a portable X-ray machine from a local medical office to scan the 59 x 76 cm oil painting from multiple angles. The X-ray images were digitally stitched using Photoshop, revealing lead-based pigment beneath the surface. When rotated 90 degrees, the image clearly showed the half-silhouette of a man facing the viewer, likely Cézanne himself. If confirmed as a self-portrait, it would be one of his earliest, created when he was in his mid-twenties, predating most of his known self-portraits, which were completed after 1860 and largely executed in pencil. The painting has been in the museum's collection since 1955. CAM conservators plan to collaborate with art historians and Cézanne experts worldwide to extract as much information as possible from the newly revealed work.