London, UK

UK’s National Trust has uncovered a ‘devil-like figure’ in a 230-year-old painting made by 18th Century artist Joshua Reynolds, who died in 1792.

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The discovery was made during restoration work. The ‘spirit’ was hidden behind layers of paint and varnish. 

The painting depicts a death scene from Shakespeare's "Henry VI, Part 2" with the king witnessing the death of Cardinal Beaufort.

Why was the ‘spirit’ kept hidden?

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According to John Chu, the Trust’s senior national curator for pictures and sculpture, it might not have been considered appropriate to represent a poetic figure of speech so literally in the form of this monstrous figure at that time.

“While it was considered acceptable in literature to introduce the idea of a demon as something in the mind of a person, to include it visually in a painting gave it too physical a form,” he said.

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"There were even people who argued that it should have been painted out, although records of conversations with the artist show he resisted such attempts to alter the work,” he added.

It is believed that after Reynolds’ death, some artists hid it behind layers of paint and varnish, and this is how the figure went unseen for over two centuries.

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"This is a large painting, and we wanted to ensure that it still represented what Reynolds originally painted, which included allowing the fiend to be uncovered through removing all the non-original darkened varnishes and ensuring it still correctly showed its form and perspective with the work we did," said John Chu.

Chu also said that due to several layers of paint on that area which covered the devil, it deteriorated into a small island of paint and became less clear due to the degradation of successive varnish layers.

(With inputs from agencies)