The artist sees the world in his own way. Driven by divine providence, he offers the viewer illusionary paintings full of desire to show the obvious. Optical deception or, scientifically speaking, optical illusion is a ubiquitous phenomenon and can be observed endlessly, perceiving the world around us and even ordinary objects.
The ephemerality is especially evident when it comes to the art and works of great masters of the brush, their mysterious canvases, which are worth racking your brains over...
According to researchers, they were able to comprehend the message of the greatest artist with the help of mirrors. Sacred images are what the genius wanted to show the world. One of the most famous paintings of the great hoaxer clearly hints at the presence of the Old Testament Yahweh. The young John the Baptist depicted in the sketch is not looking at Mary or Saint Anne. His gaze passes over the newborn Jesus. He is looking at the face of God! It was his bizarre image that attracted the boy's attention.
The idea of creating paintings, the image of which appears under certain conditions, belongs to Leonardo da Vinci. This kind of art is called anamorphic. His Mona Lisa hides an amazing face. It can be seen in the area of the right hand of Mona Lisa, the “Last Supper” hides the inverted Grail, and John the Baptist keeps the image of a fantastic creature, hinting at the process of creation. One of the first anamorphic drawings was an image of a child's head, which can only be viewed from a certain angle.
"The Mysterious Island" - the most famous anamorph of Istvan Oros
The enchanting mystery paintings of the Hungarian graphic artist are based on the laws of physics, so in order to strengthen their perception you will have to study at least a school course. The creator's imagination literally knows no bounds.
The magician hides the most incredible things and phenomena in his paintings, forcing the viewer not only to admire what he saw, but also to think. To obtain an anamorphic image, Oros uses cylindrical, pyramidal or cone-shaped mirror objects. It is enough to put them in the right place and the correct image appears in an obvious light.
Looking at them, I want to understand how he manages, using only paper and pencil, to create miracles that deceive the human brain.
Diddy has the talent to breathe the spark of God into every drawing. His characters are so real that they even frighten with their presence. He explains his secret simply, suggesting that we try to understand anamorphic art. Next is a matter of technology.
He became famous for his special worldview and ability to juggle with the ordinary laws of the logic of space. Escher's phantasmagoric paintings are called graphic illustrations of the theory of relativity. This type of illusory images aims to achieve a stereo effect. Samples of such pictures are created using special cameras (invention of Ivan Aleksandrovsky, 1854).
The graphics are based on double rendering of the scene (shooting from two cameras). You can see these bizarre sketches only if you know special techniques.
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Even those masterpieces of painting that seem familiar to us have their secrets.
We are in website We believe that in almost every significant work of art there is a mystery, a “double bottom” or a secret story that you want to reveal. Today we will share a few of them.
112 proverbs in one picture
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, "Dutch Proverbs", 1559
Pieter Bruegel the Elder depicted a land inhabited by literal images of Dutch proverbs of those days. The painting contains approximately 112 recognizable idioms. Some of them are still used today, for example, such as: “swim against the current”, “banging your head against the wall”, “armed to the teeth” and “big fish eat little fish”.
Other proverbs reflect human stupidity.
Subjectivity of art
Paul Gauguin, "Breton Village in the Snow", 1894
Gauguin's painting "Breton Village in the Snow" was sold after the author's death for only seven francs and, moreover, under the name "Niagara Falls." The man holding the auction accidentally hung the painting upside down because he saw a waterfall in it.
Kazimir Malevich, “Black Suprematist Square”, 1915
Specialists from the Tretyakov Gallery discovered the author's inscription on the famous painting by Malevich. The inscription reads: “The battle of the blacks in the dark cave.” This phrase refers to the title of a humorous painting by the French journalist, writer and artist Alphonse Allais, “The Battle of Negroes in a Dark Cave in the Dead of Night,” which was a completely black rectangle.
Pablo Picasso, "Blue Room", 1901
In 2008, infrared radiation revealed that hidden beneath the Blue Room was another image - a portrait of a man dressed in a suit with a bow tie and resting his head on his hand. “As soon as Picasso had a new idea, he took up his brush and brought it to life. But he did not have the opportunity to buy a new canvas every time a muse visited him,” art historian Patricia Favero explains a possible reason for this.
Valentin Serov, “Portrait of Nicholas II in a jacket,” 1900
For a long time, Serov could not paint a portrait of the Tsar. When the artist completely gave up, he apologized to Nikolai. Nikolai was a little upset, sat down at the table, stretching out his arms in front of him... And then it dawned on the artist - here is the image! A simple military man in an officer's jacket with clear and sad eyes. This portrait is considered the best depiction of the last emperor.
© Fedor Reshetnikov
The famous painting “Deuce Again” is only the second part of an artistic trilogy.
The first part is “Arrived on vacation.” Obviously a wealthy family, winter holidays, a joyful excellent student.
The second part is “A deuce again.” A poor family from the working-class outskirts, the height of the school year, a dejected idiot who again got a bad grade. In the upper left corner you can see the painting “Arrived for Vacation”.
The third part is “Re-examination”. A rural house, summer, everyone is walking, one malicious ignoramus, who failed the annual exam, is forced to sit within four walls and cram. In the upper left corner you can see the painting “Deuce Again”
Joseph Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed, 1844
In 1842, Mrs. Simon traveled by train in England. Suddenly a heavy downpour began. The elderly gentleman sitting opposite her stood up, opened the window, stuck his head out and stared for about ten minutes. Unable to contain her curiosity, the woman also opened the window and began to look forward. A year later, she discovered the painting “Rain, Steam and Speed” at an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts and was able to recognize in it the same episode on the train.
Millions of people admire the works of famous artists of the past. Their amazing colors, the play of shadow and light, the skill with which the smallest details are so carefully painted. But are we looking at paintings carefully enough? Do we see everything that the artist wanted to show us? At first glance, it only seems that these are just landscapes, portraits, historical and biblical subjects. They may contain the most amazing secrets of history, the secrets of their creators, and under the layer of paint of one painting, a completely different one may be hidden. Only careful study and analysis carried out by experts can lift the veil of these secrets for us, but sometimes even they cannot do this, and the mysteries of famous paintings remain unsolved for future generations.
Even those masterpieces of painting that seem familiar to us and studied almost millimeter by millimeter have their secrets. Almost every significant work of art has a mystery, a “double bottom” or a secret story that you want to uncover. Today we will share a few of them.
The painting "Flemish Proverbs" painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder can be called one of the largest and most fascinating puzzles. The artist depicted a land literally inhabited by Dutch proverbs!
About 112 idioms are recognized in the picture, some of them are known to you and me. Try searching for: “armed to the teeth,” “swimming against the tide,” or “banging your head against the wall.” Perhaps you can solve the rest? For example, those who talk about human stupidity or, conversely, about foresight?
Hieronymus Bosch, "The Garden of Earthly Delights", 1500-1510. This painting has caused a lot of controversy since its birth, which continues 500 years later. One of the topics for research was the right side of the triptych, called “Musical Hell,” which depicts the torment of sinners in hell who are tortured using musical instruments. The researchers' attention was drawn to the notes written by the artist on... the buttocks of one of the sinners. The notes were rearranged in a modern way and... a melody from the underworld began to sound, which became a sensation.
And this is how the music sounds, played according to the notes from the picture:
One of Rembrandt’s most famous paintings, “Danae,” received the nickname “two-faced.” X-ray photography showed that Danae’s face was painted twice: the first time it was an image similar to Saskia, the painter’s deceased wife, and the second, later one, resembles the face of his other lover, Gertje Dirks, who became the artist’s girlfriend after Saskia’s death.
Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn, "Danae", 1636 - 1647.
The painting “Figure at a Window” was painted in 1925, when Dali was 21 years old. At that time, Gala had not yet entered the artist’s life, and his muse was his sister Anna Maria. The relationship between brother and sister deteriorated when he wrote in one of the paintings “sometimes I spit on the portrait of my own mother, and this gives me pleasure.” Anna Maria could not forgive such shocking behavior.
In her 1949 book, Salvador Dali Through the Eyes of a Sister, she writes about her brother without any praise. The book infuriated Salvador. For another ten years after that, he angrily remembered her at every opportunity. And so, in 1954, the painting “A Young Virgin Indulging in the Sin of Sodomy with the Help of the Horns of Her Own Chastity” appeared. The woman’s pose, her curls, the landscape outside the window and the color scheme of the painting clearly echo “Figure at the Window.” There is a version that Dali took revenge on his sister for her book.
Old Fisherman, Tivadar Kostka Chontvari, 1902. An old tired fisherman is a portrait of an ordinary person, like all of us and nothing more. What's the mystery here? No one could understand it during the artist’s lifetime. And its essence is that in each of us there lives an Angel and a Demon, in the soul of each there is God and there is a Devil. Place a mirror in the middle of the picture and you will see that in every person there can be both God and the Devil.
One of Klimt's most significant paintings depicts the wife of the Austrian sugar magnate Ferdinad Bloch-Bauer. All of Vienna was discussing the stormy romance between Adele and the famous artist. The wounded husband wanted to take revenge on his lovers, but chose a very unusual method: he decided to order a portrait of Adele from Klimt and force him to make hundreds of sketches until the artist began to vomit from her.
Gustav Klimt, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer", 1907.
Bloch-Bauer wanted the work to last several years, so that the sitter could see how Klimt's feelings were fading. He made a generous offer to the artist, which he could not refuse, and everything turned out according to the scenario of the deceived husband: the work was completed in 4 years, the lovers had long since cooled off to each other. Adele Bloch-Bauer never knew that her husband was aware of her relationship with Klimt.
Leonardo da Vinci, "The Last Supper", 1495-1498.
Leonardo da Vinci fresco "The Last Supper" 1495-1498. Over more than 5 centuries of existence, the famous fresco was destroyed and restored more than once (the last restoration lasted 21 years!). Many looked for secrets in it and found them - where did the “extra” hand with a knife come from? From whom did Leonardo paint Jesus and Judas?
Technologist Slavisa Pesci achieved the visual effect by superimposing its own translucent mirror reflection on top of the original, which revealed two additional figures at the edges of the picture and a woman standing to the left of Jesus with a baby.
Musician Giovanni Maria Pala interpreted the bread and hands on the table as a musical notation of a musical composition.
Researcher Sabrina Sforza Galitzia believes she has solved the puzzle contained in The Last Supper, which predicts a global flood that will begin on March 21, 4006 and mark the beginning of a new era for humanity.
Vincent van Gogh, "Bedroom in Arles", 1888 - 1889.
In May 1888, Van Gogh acquired a small studio in Arles, in the south of France, where he fled from Parisian artists and critics who did not understand him. In one of the four rooms, Vincent sets up a bedroom. In October, everything is ready, and he decides to paint “Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles.” For the artist, the color and comfort of the room were very important: everything had to evoke thoughts of relaxation. At the same time, the picture is designed in alarming yellow tones.
Researchers of Van Gogh's work explain this by the fact that the artist took foxglove, a remedy for epilepsy, which causes serious changes in the patient's perception of color: the entire surrounding reality is painted in green and yellow tones.
Sometimes the search for secrets in the paintings of famous artists reveals deception, voluntary or involuntary. This happened with Rembrandt's painting "The Night Watch" (1642). In fact, it was a day watch! It’s just that over the course of a couple of hundred years, during which the painting wandered through different halls until it fell into the hands of art critics, it managed to become covered with a thick layer of soot that darkened the entire background. After thoroughly cleaning the surface, details were discovered that confirmed the “day version” - the shadow from the captain’s hand falls in such a way that it can be assumed that the painting depicts a patrol that took to the city streets no later than 2 o’clock in the afternoon.
Rembrandt, "Night Watch", 1642.
Vincent van Gogh misled everyone with his Self-Portrait with a Pipe, in which he depicted himself with a bandaged ear. The ear was indeed damaged, but not the right one, but the left one. The deception is obvious and, most likely, accidental - he simply painted himself while looking in the mirror.
Vincent van Gogh, "Self-Portrait with a Pipe".
And one more deception that we all know from childhood from candy wrappers. The famous "Morning in the Pine Forest" (1889) by Ivan Shishkin, the greatest master of landscape. The artist, who painted landscapes beautifully, was afraid that his bears would not come out “alive” and truly touching. Therefore, he resorted to the help of another master animal artist, Konstantin Savitsky, who knew how to draw bears like no one else. Initially, the names of both authors were on the canvas, but... Tretyakov ordered the name of the animal painter to be washed off.
Ivan Shishkin, “Morning in the Pine Forest”, 1889.
The famous “La Gioconda” exists in two versions: the nude version is called “Monna Vanna”, it was painted by the little-known artist Salai, who was a student and sitter of the great Leonardo da Vinci.
Many art historians are sure that it was he who was the model for Leonardo’s paintings “John the Baptist” and “Bacchus”. There are also versions that Salai, dressed in a woman’s dress, served as the image of the Mona Lisa herself.
The generally accepted opinion is that the Mona Lisa is perfection and her smile is beautiful in its mystery. However, American art critic (and part-time dentist) Joseph Borkowski believes that, judging by her facial expression, the heroine has lost many teeth. While studying enlarged photographs of the masterpiece, Borkowski also discovered scars around her mouth. “She “smiles” like that precisely because of what happened to her,” the expert believes. “Her facial expression is typical of people who have lost their front teeth.”
Henri Matisse's painting "The Boat" was exhibited at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1961. Only after 47 days did someone notice that the painting was hanging upside down. The canvas depicts 10 purple lines and two blue sails on a white background.
The artist painted two sails for a reason; the second sail is a reflection of the first on the surface of the water. In order not to make a mistake in how the picture should hang, you need to pay attention to the details. The larger sail should be the top of the painting, and the peak of the painting's sail should be toward the top right corner.
Henri Matisse, "The Boat", 1937.
The artists Edouard Manet and Claude Monet are sometimes confused - after all, they were both French, lived at the same time and worked in the style of impressionism. Monet even borrowed the title of one of Manet’s most famous paintings, “Luncheon on the Grass,” and wrote his own “Luncheon on the Grass.”
Edouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863.
Claude Monet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1865.
How many more secrets, secret codes and messages, erroneous interpretations and deceptions are hidden in the paintings of great artists? Who knows, maybe they will be revealed literally tomorrow, or maybe only by the next generation of researchers.
Publications in the Museums section
Works of art often gain special popularity if there are legends about them or if they unexpectedly turn out to be not what they seem at first glance. "Kultura.RF" reveals the secrets of famous - and not so famous - Russian paintings.
Ilya Repin. Nun. 1878. State Tretyakov Gallery / Portrait under an X-ray
From the portrait, a young girl in strict monastic clothes looks thoughtfully at the viewer. The image is classic and familiar - it probably would not have aroused interest among art critics if not for the memoirs of Lyudmila Shevtsova-Spore, the niece of Repin’s wife. They revealed an interesting story.
This did not stop the artist from repeatedly painting portraits of Sophia. For one of them, the girl posed in a formal ball gown: a light elegant dress, lace sleeves, and a high hairstyle. While working on the painting, Repin had a serious quarrel with the model. As you know, anyone can offend an artist, but few can take revenge as creatively as Repin did. The offended artist “dressed” Sophia in the portrait in monastic clothes.
The story, similar to an anecdote, was confirmed by an x-ray. The researchers were lucky: Repin did not remove the original paint layer, which allowed them to examine the heroine’s original outfit in detail.
Isaac Brodsky. Park alley. 1930. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow / Isaac Brodsky. Alley of the park in Rome. 1911
An equally interesting mystery was left for researchers by Repin’s student, Isaac Brodsky. The Tretyakov Gallery houses his painting “Park Alley,” which at first glance is unremarkable: Brodsky had many works on “park” themes. However, the further you go into the park, the more colorful layers there are.
One of the researchers noticed that the composition of the painting was suspiciously reminiscent of another work by the artist - “Park Alley in Rome” (Brodsky was stingy with original titles). This painting was considered lost for a long time, and its reproduction was published only in a rather rare edition in 1929. With the help of x-rays, the Roman alley that had mysteriously disappeared was found - right under the Soviet one. The artist did not clean up the already finished image and simply made a number of simple changes to it: he dressed the passers-by according to the fashion of the 30s of the 20th century, “took away” the children’s clothes, removed the marble statues and slightly modified the trees. So, with a couple of light movements of the hand, the sunny Italian park turned into an exemplary Soviet one.
When asked why Brodsky decided to hide his Roman alley, they did not find an answer. But it can be assumed that the depiction of the “modest charm of the bourgeoisie” in 1930 was no longer inappropriate from an ideological point of view. Nevertheless, of all Brodsky’s post-revolutionary landscape works, “Park Alley” is the most interesting: despite the changes, the picture retained the charming grace of Art Nouveau, which, alas, no longer existed in Soviet realism.
Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky. Morning in a pine forest. 1889. State Tretyakov Gallery
A forest landscape with bear cubs playing on a fallen tree is perhaps the artist’s most famous work. But the idea for the landscape was suggested to Ivan Shishkin by another artist, Konstantin Savitsky. He also painted a bear with three cubs: the forest expert Shishkin had no luck with the bears.
Shishkin had an impeccable understanding of forest flora; he noticed the slightest mistakes in the drawings of his students - either the birch bark was depicted incorrectly, or the pine looked like a fake one. However, people and animals have always been rare in his works. This is where Savitsky came to the rescue. By the way, he left several preparatory drawings and sketches with bear cubs - he was looking for suitable poses. “Morning in a Pine Forest” was not originally “Morning”: the painting was called “Bear Family in the Forest,” and there were only two bears in it. As a co-author, Savitsky also put his signature on the canvas.
When the canvas was delivered to the merchant Pavel Tretyakov, he was indignant: he paid for Shishkin (ordered an original work), but received Shishkin and Savitsky. Shishkin, as an honest person, did not attribute authorship to himself. But Tretyakov followed the principle and blasphemously erased Savitsky’s signature from the painting with turpentine. Savitsky later nobly renounced copyright, and the bears were attributed to Shishkin for a long time.
Konstantin Korovin. Portrait of a chorus girl. 1887. State Tretyakov Gallery / Reverse side of the portrait
On the back of the canvas, researchers found a message from Konstantin Korovin on cardboard, which turned out to be almost more interesting than the painting itself:
“In 1883 in Kharkov, a portrait of a chorus girl. Written on a balcony in a commercial public garden. Repin said when S.I. Mamontov showed him this sketch that he, Korovin, was writing and looking for something else, but what is it for - this is painting for painting’s sake only. Serov had not yet painted portraits at this time. And the painting of this sketch was found incomprehensible??!! So Polenov asked me to remove this sketch from the exhibition, since neither the artists nor the members - Mr. Mosolov and some others - liked it. The model was not a beautiful woman, even somewhat ugly.”
Konstantin Korovin
The “Letter” was disarming with its directness and daring challenge to the entire artistic community: “Serov had not yet painted portraits at that time,” but he, Konstantin Korovin, painted them. And he was allegedly the first to use techniques characteristic of the style that would later be called Russian impressionism. But all this turned out to be a myth that the artist created intentionally.
The harmonious theory “Korovin is the forerunner of Russian impressionism” was mercilessly destroyed by objective technical and technological research. On the front side of the portrait they found the artist’s signature in paint, and just below in ink: “1883, Kharkov.” The artist worked in Kharkov in May - June 1887: he painted scenery for performances of the Mamontov Russian Private Opera. In addition, art historians have found that the “Portrait of a Chorus Girl” was painted in a certain artistic manner - a la prima. This oil painting technique made it possible to paint a picture in one session. Korovin began to use this technique only in the late 1880s.
After analyzing these two inconsistencies, the Tretyakov Gallery staff came to the conclusion that the portrait was painted only in 1887, and Korovin added an earlier date to emphasize his own innovation.
Ivan Yakimov. Man and cradle.1770. State Tretyakov Gallery / Full version of the work
For a long time, Ivan Yakimov’s painting “Man and Cradle” puzzled art critics. And the point was not even that this kind of everyday sketches are absolutely uncharacteristic of 18th-century painting - the rocking horse in the lower right corner of the picture has a rope that is too unnaturally stretched, which logically should have been lying on the floor. And it was too early for a child to play with such toys from the cradle. Also, the fireplace did not even fit half onto the canvas, which looked very strange.
The situation was “clarified” - in the literal sense - by an x-ray. She showed that the canvas was cut on the right and top.
The Tretyakov Gallery received the painting after the sale of the collection of Pavel Petrovich Tugoy-Svinin. He owned the so-called “Russian Museum” - a collection of paintings, sculptures and antiques. But in 1834, due to financial problems, the collection had to be sold - and the painting “Man and Cradle” ended up in the Tretyakov Gallery: not all of it, but only its left half. The right one, unfortunately, was lost, but you can still see the work in its entirety, thanks to another unique exhibit of the Tretyakov Gallery. The full version of Yakimov’s work was found in the album “Collection of excellent works by Russian artists and curious domestic antiquities,” which contains drawings from most of the paintings that were part of Svinin’s collection.
The evolution of painting in Russia from the 10th to the mid-20th century
To an exhibition of paintings by Aivazovsky. But now here, in Tretyakov Gallery, in the Engineering Building, a unique exhibition is being held Secrets of old paintings. When you look at the back of the painting and find out that on the other side of the canvas, it turns out, there are also interesting mysteries. When else will they show you what is hidden under the main layer of the painting in X-ray radiation? When else will you see sketches of famous paintings in which the subjects and faces can be completely different?
Let's start with the most famous painting by Vasily Pukirev "Unequal Marriage". Pay attention to the young man with a beard who stands behind the bride. This is Vasily Pukirev himself and it was believed that this is the story of his unhappy love, when his bride was forced to marry Alexei Markovich Poltoratsky, who was the leader of the Tver nobility.
But...Let's look at the sketch of the painting and what do we see? Did you notice? Behind the bride is a similar, but slightly different person.
02.
This is Pukirev’s friend Sergei Mikhailovich Varentsov. He was in love with Sofya Nikolaevna Rybnikova, who was given in marriage to Andrei Aleksandrovich Karzinkin. And Varentsov was present at this wedding
03.
04. But what else do we see when analyzing the picture and history? It turns out that Andrei Karzinkin from the second version was only 37 years old at the time of the wedding, while Alexey Poltoratsky was quite an old man, which we see in the sketch “Head of an Old Man”, which was written for the painting. Although there are versions that the head was copied from Prince Pavel Tsitsianov or from the cook Vladimir Ivanovich, who served with the Varentsovs 
05. And here, many years later, in 1907, a joker appears - a pencil drawing by V.D. Sukhov. And on it is the inscription: “Praskovya Matveevna Varentsova, with whom 44 years ago the artist V.V. Pukirev painted his famous painting “Unequal Marriage.” Mrs. Varentsova lives in Moscow, in the Mazurin almshouse.” So the mystery of the painting was solved 
Go ahead. Here is Isaac Brodsky's painting "Park Alley", painted in 1930. It would seem that what is unusual about this? A park with Soviet people walking. But the researchers paid attention to trees whose crown was not very typical for Soviet parks
06. 
The same painting by Brodsky from the Italian cycle “Park Alley in Rome”, written in 1911, was known. She was considered lost. And so the researchers decided to illuminate the painting “Park Alley” with X-rays. And what did they see? They saw the same painting “Park Alley in Rome” that was considered missing. Imagine 1930. The flywheel of repression begins to unwind. And a picture. praising bourgeois Italy could bring big problems to the artist. And Brodsky, slightly changing the figures of people, turns an Italian park into a Soviet park. But, thanks to X-rays and the tireless researchers of the Tretyakov Gallery, we can see the painting “Park Alley in Rome”. You can compare
07.
08. “Portrait of an unknown person in a cocked hat” by Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov. It would seem, what is unusual about it? Well, the face looks like a woman's. But there seems to be nothing more. It was believed that this was a portrait of Count Bobrinsky. 
09. But no. X-ray revealed to us a woman’s face, presumably the wife of the landowner Struisky, Olimpiada Sergeevna Balbekova. She died at the age of 20 
10. “Portrait of Elizaveta Petrovna in her youth” by an unknown artist also seems to be a classic portrait of the mid-18th century. This is a copy of the painting by the court painter L. Caravaque "Portrait of Tsarevna Elizaveta Petrovna in a man's suit" 
11. But looking at the reverse side of the picture, we see a mirror portrait of Elizabeth with the inscription “Her Imperial Highness the Crown Princess of Gdrenya in Her Young Latter, which was after the Most Serene Empress of Gdrnia Elisavet Petrovna.” It is interesting that the portrait was painted on the thinnest canvas. This is the only job like this in the world 
12.
13. A funny story is connected with the painting “The Nun” by Ilya Repin. This is Sofia Repina, who married the artist’s brother. But why is she depicted as a nun? 
14. The fact is that, according to the memoirs of the artist’s niece L.A. Shevtsova-Spore, Repin and Sophia quarreled, and the artist freaked out. Well, a creative person happens. I took it and remade the light portrait of Sophia in a lace dress into a monastic one. 
I guess I’ll stop here and won’t reveal the secrets of the other old paintings anymore. There must be a mystery for you. And, believe me, there are still a lot of secrets of various famous paintings that can be unraveled. So go, run urgently to this unique exhibition. It runs until August 21st. You still have time to catch it.
Thank you Grushenka , catherine_catty , lotta20 , balakina_ann , julia_lambert , da_dmitriy , nastyono4ka , bulyukina_e ,
