X-Ray Supports Authenticity of Van Gogh Work : Art: A self-portrait housed at a Connecticut museum has been doubted since 1954. The image of an early sketch beneath the paint adds credibility.

Museum officials locked in a battle with an art critic over the authenticity of a purported self-portrait by Van Gogh say they have new proof, contained in an X-ray of the painting.

The X-ray, taken at Hartford’s Mt. Sinai Hospital, shows the outlines of a sketch beneath the painting, and officials at Wadsworth Atheneum say the sketch was clearly done by Van Gogh in the mid-1880s.

“With these scientific results, we now have what I believe is ‘the smoking pistol’--positive proof that this must be a work by Vincent van Gogh,” said museum Director Patrick McCaughey.

The X-ray and the picture will be exhibited side-by-side Tuesday at the museum.

The authenticity of the 16-by-13-inch painting has been challenged repeatedly since it was donated to the museum in 1954 by architect Philip Goodwin.

Museum officials have maintained that it is one of a series of gaunt, haunting self-portraits Van Gogh painted between 1886 and 1888.

Most recently, Swiss art dealer and critic Walter Feilchenfeldt insisted that the work is a forgery or, more likely, a Van Gogh portrait painted in tribute by another artist. He said the painting “is not Van Gogh’s style.”

The painting is to be included in an international exhibition next year.

“The international exhibition is what really propelled us into saying, ‘Let’s sort this painting out once and for all,’ ” McCaughey said. “Let’s see if it is worth $17 million or $1.70--$1.70 being the value of the frame.”

The museum said the X-ray disclosed a sketch of a fleshy woman in a bonnet. The woman looks much like the figures in Van Gogh’s series of pictures of Dutch peasants, such as “The Potato Eaters,” McCaughey said.

“When the X-ray was turned upside down, there indeed was Mrs. Potato Eater, or Miss Potato Eater, seated at the pail peeling her spuds,” he said.

Impoverished artists like Van Gogh painted over earlier works or painted on both sides of a canvas to save money.