Crystal Ball in Painting

Henry Siddons Mowbray, Le Destin, 1896

John William Waterhouse The Crystal Ball with the skull 1902

Art detective work has uncovered the hidden secret of the painting after it was "doctored" in the early 1950s. "The Crystal Ball" by John William Waterhouse RA (1849-1917) shows a young model in a red dress gazing into the ball, apparently weaving a spell with the aid of a book and a skull.

It was shown alongside a more spiritual picture* by the artist at the Royal Academy in 1902. The study later entered the Pyman collection and eventually hung in the dining room at Glenborrodale Castle, Highland.
The painting was sold with the castle when the property changed hands in 1952-3. But the new owner did not like the skull and had it covered by curtains. The picture was later sold and came into the auction room in its amended state (Christie's, 1994).
But when Martin Beisly, head of the Victorian picture department, and his team began to research its background they came across photographs of the original in The Art Journal, 1909. An X-ray of the picture showed the skull still there.
A pigment analysis demonstrated that the original surface was still protected with a layer of varnish which meant the addition could be removed safely. The picture would clean up "quite beautifully", Mr Beisly said. (www.jwwaterhouse.com)

John William Waterhouse, The Crystal Ball, 1902

Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Astrologia, 1865

Sir Frank Dicksee, The Magic Crystal

Simeon Solomon, The Toilet of a Roman Lady, 1869

Nelly Erichson, The Magic Crystal

Marie Spartali Stillman, Madonna Pietra degli Scrovigni

Marguerite Gerard (1761-1837), Le Chat Angora

Leonora Carrington, And then we saw the Daughter of the Minotaur, 1953

Leonora Carrington

Jacques de Gheyn the Elder, Still Life, 1603

Gustav Klimt, Veritas (detail)

Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, Today for Me, 1901

Edward John Poynter, 1877

Giovanni Bellini, Fortune from Four allegories, 1490

Fernand Khnopff, Head of a Woman

Beth Andrews, Red Silk & Crystal Ball

Georges Barbier, Odalisque With A Crystal Ball, 1920

Max Beckmann, Self-Portrait with Crystal Ball, 1936

This painting was done in Germany just before the artist fled persecution by the Nazis, who considered his work "degenerate." It was sold by the descendants of a European collector who bought it from the artist in Zurich, Switzerland in 1938; the buyer remained anonymous. ($16.8 m at Sotheby's)

William McGregor Paxton, 1900

Zuloaga Ignacio, 1899

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