A secret Picasso sketch has been found hidden beneath one of his famous artworks after experts used X-ray scans to examine wrinkles on the canvas.
The drawing, which appears to show a pitcher, cup and newspaper resting on a chair, was scribbled on the back of the canvas used for his 1922 piece Still Life.
The legendary Spanish artist, who created more than 50,000 pieces during his lifetime, regularly reused canvases by painting over previous drawings.
But researchers at the Art Institute of Chicago, where Still Life hangs, have described the latest find as unusual.
The drawing seems to have been erased using a thick layer of white paint before he began the final abstract masterpiece, according to Live Science.
The new sketch was only uncovered after scientists used high-tech scans to analyse Picasso's painting techniques on the renowned artwork after noticing wrinkles on the canvas.
'X-ray and infrared imaging revealed that Picasso had originally painted a neo-classical still life on the canvas,' according to research published in the journal SN Applied Sciences.
'He applied a lead-white-based priming layer over the first composition before painting the linear abstract Still Life dated February 4, 1922.'
There is reasonable certainty that the sketch are that of the legendary artist as they bare striking resemblance to other of his drawings including those on display at the Gothenburg Museum of Art in Sweden.
Similar sketches have previously been found beneath other Picasso masterpieces including that of a man found beneath his painting of a bathing woman in The Blue Room in 2014.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
