Scanner finds painting under Picasso’s art

A NEW scanning technique has found a painting underneath one of Pablo Picasso’s most famous works, the Crouching Woman (La Misereuse Accroupie).

A landscape of Barcelona lies beneath the masterpiece and it is believed the Spanish artist used this as a starting point.

When the painting of the Catalan countryside is turned at a 90 degrees angle the contour of the hills are identical to the shape of the woman’s back

Kenneth Brummel, a curator of the Art Institute of Ontario in Canada, hailed the “exciting” find.

He said: “It helps to date the painting and it also helps to determine where the painting was made.” Gabriel Byrne