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an entirely new bulky stretcher and a new canvas 
The first impression I gathered was of the rather strange colors and treatment of the blouse towards the left. Not being able to conceive at first that it was an entirely modern copy, I was facing, my thought that, though the painting had been relined in the course of years, it had probably sustained some recent damage which would have caused a new relining, hence a new canvas was visible on the back (the old relining in such a case being removed and a new canvas applied). However, the junction of the old original canvas with the new canvas was nowhere to be detected. 

The mystery was thus deepening, and I thought of comparing it not only with the regular photograph I had of the original painting but also with an ultra-violet photograph I had had made, which showed some unimportant damage which the original canvas had suffered and which at the time had probably caused its relining. With the use of my own ultra violet lamp, I started examining this painting, though there were, of course, no traces of the old damage nor any of a new damage, which, as explained above, could have called for a new relining. The fluorescing of the painting showed a technical construction which struck me and which could be interpreted as follows: the painting seemed to have been carried out in two stages, first by a sort of uniform layer on which as a second one of colors had been applied, and this second layer appeared strikingly on the face. A further explanation and comparison with the regular photograph showed then essentially the following: the weakness and strange treatment of the blouse towards the left which had struck me earlier, the treatment of the mouth--quite different from the original--as well as the line at the rear of the head. There are probably differences, but all these elements together led me to the unfortunate conclusion that this painting was definitely not the one I had had in my possession and [[??]] over to Seaton and was in my opinion a quite recent copy; and this is the information I had to give Mrs. Dickerson.