Hidden Portrait Discovered Under René Magritte's 'La Cinquième Saison'

A hidden portrait has been discovered beneath René Magritte's 1943 painting 'La Cinquième Saison', housed at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. The concealed female face, revealed through infrared reflectography, shows a woman with an oval face, large light eyes, and hair tied back, resting her head on her right hand. The features resemble Magritte's wife Georgette, except for the blonde locks. This is not the first time a hidden work has been found under a Magritte painting; in 2016, curators at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery in England discovered part of Magritte's 1927 painting 'La Pose Enchantée' beneath his 1935 work 'La Condition Humaine', solving the mystery of the lost painting known only from a black-and-white photograph. The new discovery was made during a research project at the Royal Museums of Belgium led by Catherine Defeyt and Francisca Vandepitte, who are co-authors of the upcoming book 'René Magritte: The Artist's Materials', to be published in August by the Getty Conservation Institute as part of its Artist Materials series.