Robert Meyrick, Head of School of Art, speaks at Global Press Launch and Unveiling in Geneva of Mona Lisa, Leonardo’s Earlier Version

The Head of School of Art at Aberystwyth University was among the invited experts who addressed the world press at the unveiling in Geneva of a painting that many believe to be an earlier version of the Mona Lisa. Robert Meyrick is the world’s leading expert on Hugh Blaker who bought the painting in 1913. Known as the Isleworth Mona Lisa, is claimed to have been painted 11-12 years before the famous Louvre portrait. Slightly larger, has long been the subject of debate over its authenticity.

If the Isleworth Mona Lisa turns out to be authentic, this will conclude that Leonardo da Vinci painted two versions of the Mona Lisa. Robert Meyrick explains, “From the outset, art collector and dealer Blaker believed that he had discovered an earlier version of the Mona Lisa, but did not have the science to prove it. He argued that Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) could have been two separate canvases, but after one went missing, both names were applied to the Louvre painting. “Unlike the Louvre version, the composition of the Isleworth Mona Lisa mirrors exactly that of a drawing Raphael made of the painting in Leonardo’s studio – which is also in the Louvre.”

After Blaker’s death in 1936, the painting passed to his sister Jane who lived in Montgomeryshire as companion to the Davies sisters of Gregynog. Following her death in 1947, it was sold in London to the American collector, Henry Pulitzer, who in turn left it to his girlfriend. It was bought by a Swiss consortium who have kept it in a Swiss bank vault for 40 years.

The event was attended by over 100 members of the world press. The three other invited scholars were Professor Alessandro Vezzosi, Director of the Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci, Professor John Asmus, a research physicist from the Institute for Pure and Applied Physical Sciences at the University of California, and Joe Mullins, a forensic imaging specialist at the New York Academy of Art. The new research has been presented in a newly published 320-page book entitled Mona Lisa – Leonardo’s Earlier Version, which will also be launched at the unveiling.

It was Robert Meyrick’s research on Blaker that last year provided the evidence required to authenticate a painting by Amedeo Modigliani.