Younger Mona Lisa Lacks Leonardo’s Look: Martin Gayford

Suddenly, it seems to be raining Mona Lisas.

A website that went live yesterday argues that there are, in fact, two authentic Leonardo pictures of that famous smile: the familiar painting in the Louvre and another, earlier version of a distinctly younger-looking sitter, known as “The Isleworth Mona Lisa” (from the west London suburb where its then owner lived).

This was discovered, or so the story goes, by a British artist and collector named Hugh Blaker (1878-1936) in Somerset just before the World War I.

Later, it was owned by an art dealer, Henry F. Pulitzer, who placed it in a Swiss bank vault in 1975, where it has remained more or less ever since. It is now owned by an international group.

Two years ago the “Mona Lisa Foundation” was formed to research the picture, and its findings are presented on the website The picture itself was been on show in Geneva.

So how does the evidence stack up? Central to the case is that there were two distinct Mona Lisas painted by Leonardo in the first place. The evidence for this is shaky.

The artist and historian Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) stated that the picture was unfinished -- which the Louvre painting obviously isn’t. But he never saw the painting, never met Leonardo, was writing decades later and frequently got his facts slightly scrambled.

Source: The Mona Lisa Foundation via Bloomberg

A detail of the "Isleworth Mona Lisa." . It is claimed to be an earlier portrait by Leonardo of the same sitter. Close

A detail of the "Isleworth Mona Lisa." . It is claimed to be an earlier portrait by... Read More

Source: The Mona Lisa Foundation via Bloomberg


Lomazzo’s Pair

A later 16th-century writer, Gian Paolo Lomazzo (1538-92), refers to “the portrait of La Gioconda and of the Mona Lisa” as if there were two of them. The same objections apply. He never saw the original, which was in France.

Also, if there were two pictures, it would make no sense to title one with the sitter’s surname and the other with her first name. Both titles refer to the same Florentine woman, Lisa del Giocondo.

On the other hand, it’s not impossible that there were multiple versions of the picture. There are of several other Leonardo paintings, including the “Madonna of the Yarnwinder,” from approximately the same date.

In 2006, an article in the scholarly magazine Apollo counted nine good copies of the Mona Lisa from the 16th and 17th centuries (not including the Isleworth version).

Prado’s Mona

Earlier this year, one of those, owned by the Prado in Madrid was claimed to have been painted in Leonardo’s studio, in parallel with the Louvre painting.

The Isleworth Lisa is quite distinct from the others. Not only is she younger-looking, but she has a different landscape behind her and two pillars on either side (as a few early works apparently derived from the Mona Lisa, including a drawing by Raphael, do too).

The pillars are perhaps a point in her favor, although the Prado picture has them too. So too is technical evidence that apparently shows some of the paint is pre-1750, and the canvas around 1500.

The fact that the picture is on canvas is a strike against it. (All authentic Leonardo paintings were originally on panel, though some were later transferred to canvas).

So what’s the verdict? Personally -- and judging, admittedly, from photographs -- I’m not convinced, and I doubt many Leonardo experts will be either. She just doesn’t look “right,” as they say in the art world.

Her hands look boneless, her face strangely flat and the landscape, even if unfinished, is nothing like any other Leonardo. If it weren’t for that scientific evidence of age, I might have suspected that Hugh Blaker had painted her himself at home in Isleworth.



Muse highlights include Richard Vines on food, Zinta Lundborg’s New York weekend and Lewis Lapham on history.


To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at

Press spacebar to pause and continue. Press esc to stop.


Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.