Nearly 125 years after Pablo Picasso painted one portrait, high-tech imaging tools have revealed a secret — another, earlier portrait concealed beneath.

"Picasso often reused his canvases at this time because he did not have much money," the institute explained Historians recently made an unexpected discovery while examining one of Pablo Picasso’s paintings.

X-ray and infrared imaging has revealed a long-hidden painting beneath "Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto," providing researchers with new insights into the artist's blue period

A portrait of a mystery woman was found under one of Pablo Picasso’s earliest Blue Period paintings, revealed using imaging technology. Courtauld Institute of Art conservators took x-ray and infrared images of the 1901 painting “Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto‚” a portrait of Picasso’s Spanish sculptor friend.

Under the painting of a Spanish sculptor is the outline of a woman, according to new infrared images. The artwork will be displayed in London.

Experts analyzing the painting have several theories about why this unidentified woman has remained submerged for more than a century.

Art historians studying a Picasso painting uncovered the mysterious portrait of a woman hidden beneath the painting’s surface. The portrait of the woman was lost in 1901, when Picasso painted a portrait of his sculptor friend Mateu Fernández De Soto over the original.

One of Pablo Picasso's earliest Blue Period paintings contains another portrait hidden beneath its surface, specialist imaging technology has revealed. The big picture: The artwork of the mystery woman was discovered when Courtauld Institute of Art conservators "took x-ray and infrared images of Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto — a portrait depicting Picasso's sculptor friend painted in 1901,