In 1989, before this work was to be exhibited in a show at the Dallas Museum of Art, it was examined by a conservator at the Kimball Museum in Fort Worth . She discovered that this painting had been executed over another Cubist painting Picasso had created earlier. X-ray devices used by conservators can often tell us if artists have painted on top of previously painted works. Cubism presents objects to the viewer as if they are being seen from a number of different angles at the same time. Cubist paintings are organizations of shapes and colors, sometimes in large, flat areas.
Shapes seem to fit together like the pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle.
Picasso and Georges Braque collaborated so closely for a time on works using this particular type of organization that one may have difficulty telling their work apart. They sometimes glued paper to the surfaces of their canvases. Cubism influenced not only painting, but also sculpture and architecture throughout the world. The work of Picasso and Braque up to 1912 is usually called Analytical Cubism because the forms were analyzed into geometrical facets with subdued colors. The second stage is called Synthetic Cubism when colors became stronger and the shapes more decorative.