Backs

This unique display focuses on the backs of five paintings where important information, such as age and ownership, is revealed. Labels, inscriptions, and markings divulge details of the painting's history of attribution, exhibition, ownership, and sale.

Both sides of the works in the exhibition are visible while explanatory labels reveal each painting's hidden side. The works are drawn from SDMA's European collection and range in date from the 16th through early 20th century.

Included in the installation is Pompeo Batoni's Etienne-René Potier de Gesvres, which has a series of marks on its back that, although seem insignificant, lead from a sale at Christie's auction house in 1982 back to Adolf Hitler, for whom the painting had been purchased in Paris in 1941.

Another work on display is Giorgione's Portrait of a Man, whose back reveals a hidden drawing—now covered with paint, but visible with ultraviolet light—and inscription that attribute the work to the artist.

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