Case of The Disappearing Skull • by Mel Kientz • May, 2008
Some interesting art detective work has uncovered the hidden secret of a $700,000 painting after it was "doctored" in the early 1950s.  "The Crystal Ball" by John William Waterhouse (1902) shows a young model in a red dress gazing into a crystal ball, apparently weaving a spell with the aid of a book ... and a mysterious skull. It was originally shown alongside a more spiritual picture by the artist in London at the Royal Academy in 1902. The study later entered the Pyman collection and eventually hung in the dining room at Glenborrodale Castle, in the Scottish West Highlands.
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The painting was then sold with the castle when the property changed hands in 1952-3. But the new owner disliked the skull and actually had it painted over by extending the background curtain's image. The picture was later sold and it was auctioned again at Christies, London. It came into the auction room in its altered state.

But when Martin Beisly, head of the Victorian pictorial arts department, and his team began to research its background they came across photographs of the original in The Art Journal, 1909. An X-ray of the painting showed the skull was still there. A pigment analysis of the painting demonstrated that the original surface was protected with a layer of varnish which meant the addition could be removed safely. The picture cleaned up "quite beautifully," Mr Beisly said.

The painting now resides in the private collection of Perez Simon in Mexico. [Web Editor's note: You can purchase a reproduction with skull  from Joyce Gibson and the Illusions Gallery in Smyrna, GA.
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John William Waterhouse (1849-1917), known to his family and friends as Nino, was born in Rome in 1849. Both of his parents were painters. The family immigrated to England where William followed in the footsteps of his father. He first applied his talents at his father's studio and then at the Royal Academy Schools starting 1870.

His early classical paintings were influenced by Laurens Alma Tadema, and he also produced lighter oil on canvas subjects depicting Italian life. Subsequently he began a period of more poetical subjects, especially from Tennyson, and later, Homer.

By 1891, Waterhouse had discovered a beautiful model, whose classical features became a focal point in many of his most important and notable works of art. Her name is not known but this period greatly enhanced Nino's reputation, and his art was compared to that of Burne-Jones and Leighton.

Waterhouse drew inspiration for his paintings from the femme fatales of myth and literature. He had a genius for portraying the pivotal moment in the drama along with an unerring sense of composition. His work, a half generation later than the other classicists, continued well into the twentieth century and greatly influenced younger artists. Among those he mentored were Frank Dicksee, Arthur Hacker, Herbert James Draper and Byam Shaw.