Just after beginning operations in 2008, we formed a strong collaboration with the CSIRO and Brookhaven National Laboratory in the United States.Īt the time, we were receiving vast reams from the synchrotron’s X-ray fluorescence microscopy beamline as it delivered light a million times brighter than the sun into a variety of scientific samples. Such was the situation at the Australian Synchrotron. For every leap forward in power or speed, supporting equipment and infrastructure is needed to make the most of the new innovation. Brighter than the sunĪs is often the case in cutting-edge science, a recurring challenge is to devise technology that facilitates what researchers want to achieve.
Earlier attempts at revealing the portrait underneath didn’t show much detail.Īnd this is where the Australian Synchrotron comes into the picture.
Subsequent infra-red photography suggested the original figure was painted as early as 1860, while other barely visible features hinted at an earlier creation. X-ray imagery showed a little more detail, revealing the faint outline of a young woman, painted perhaps only shortly before the canvas was re-used. Thus began a quest to reveal the hidden woman without disturbing the portrait on top. But when did he paint the first woman? Who was the model? It appears that Degas abandoned this earlier work and repurposed the canvas for the newer portrait. Some of the discolouration was due to this other ghostly figure bleeding through. Little did they know at the time that the painting held a secret: there was another portrait of a woman, inverted, lying just under the surface. Others criticised its brown hues and the apparent discolouration across the woman’s face. Some commented that it showed the hallmarks of the French painter’s style around the 1870s. When it was first acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1937, it was unveiled to mixed reviews. Edgar Degas’s painting Portrait of a woman is an enigmatic piece.