An unpublished painting by Lola Anglada has been found under one of her paintings.

BarcelonaAbout thirty paintings by Lola Anglada (Barcelona, ​​1892 - Tiana, 1984) are preserved. Some are unfinished, but none are as surprising as Girls in the vineyard. When the technicians from the Barcelona Provincial Council's Conservation and Restoration Laboratory reviewed it in 2021 to loan it to the Vinseum in Vilafranca del Penedès, the framer made a revelation that left them stunned: there was another painting underneath. Girls in the vineyard on the frame of another painting, now titled Woman with lemons, which came to light this Thursday.

"The discovery was completely accidental. So we stopped everything and took the painting to the conservation and restoration laboratory," recalls restorer Núria Fernández.Girls in the vineyard It's from 1918 and we don't know if Woman with lemons is earlier or later, nor why he covered it up—he explains—. Perhaps because of the time he lived in, Anglada must have made good use of materials. In the historical-artistic collection of the Barcelona Provincial Council we have about 2,500 drawings and the backs of many of them are used, there are even crossed out drawings. But they were working drawings to make illustrations. In the case of Girls in the vineyard maybe he wanted to take advantage of the other one's frame, but we can't know that."

Because Woman with lemons It is not signed. To certify its authorship, the Barcelona Provincial Council commissioned a stylistic study from Dr. Montserrat Castillo, an expert on the pictorial work of Lola Anglada; and an analytical study from Dr. Núria Guasch, of the UB's Heritage Conservation-Restoration Research Group. The results of the latter were conclusive: the materials were the same.

Women and children as main figures

In the comparative analysis of Woman with lemons With other works by Anglada from the Provincial Council's collection, they found common characteristics in all of them, such as pastel tones and elements like lemons, among the Mediterranean features of his works. It is also common that the main figures in many of them are women, children, and girls. More specifically, in the case of the women, the models were often Anglada's sisters or herself. These figures usually have very fine, very marked features; the bodies are voluminous and frequently slightly angled.

After separating the two paintings, the technicians assembled Girls in the vineyard in a new frame and intervened Woman with lemons with studies under different light variations. This allowed them to observe that the painting had remained intact since its creation and also that in different parts of the painting there are details of the artist's preparatory drawing. "The work on the right is more finished, more worked, and the one on the left is only sketched with a few brushstrokes," he explains. Regarding conservation, Gasol stabilized the painting and filled in some small gaps to make it legible. After the presentation, Woman with lemons It will return to the Provincial Council's reserves, available to facilities, especially those in the Local Museum Network that wish to request it for display.