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Whether it was to remove the offensive image of a dead animal or simply to have the painting “View of Scheveningen Sands” better fit the buyer’s market, the beached whale painter Hendrick van Anthonissen originally put as the focal point of his painting in 1641 has finally been restored to its rightful place.

According to LiveScience:

“It seemed a very unassuming painting depicting a very calm beach scene set in winter,” Shan Kuang, a conservation student at the University of Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, said in a new video explaining the strange find. “There were clusters of people gathered. I was unclear why they were there, but it didn’t seem too out of normal.” 

Kuang was tasked with removing a coat of varnish, which is typically found on oil paintings, but unfortunately yellows over time. When she began cleaning, a figure emerged on the horizon of the ocean next to a shape that looked like a sail. This was “extremely peculiar and unexpected,” Kuang said. But further cleaning with a scalpel and solvent revealed the floating figure was actually standing on top of a whale, and what at first appeared to be a sail was actually the whale’s fin.

The “touch-ups” were assumed to have taken place in the 18th or 19th century, but the restored version will be on permanent display at the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge.

Full story at LiveScience.

What’s hidden in the art.

Photo credit: Fitzwilliam Museum, Graphics credit: Canva