New insights on the Picasso’s Blue Period painting La famille Soler through non-invasive imaging and analytical techniques

The material study of La Famille Soler through non-invasive imaging, molecular, structural and elemental techniques, permitted a relevant re-examination of this singular blue period painting, which is considered as the earliest Picasso’s version of Le déjeuner sur l’herbe by E. Manet. On the one hand, it was concluded that the underlying landscape painted by Vidal in 1903 referred to Manet’s masterpiece. On the other hand, it was assumed that the cubist sketch undertaken by Picasso in 1912, prior to the current blue background, consists of an uncompleted transformation of Vidal’s landscape into synthetic cubism. Additionally, the main pigments associated to the underlying compositions were successfully identified.