When originally compiling the list of Boty’s paintings for this website I consulted Dr Sue Tate as to whether I should include the “Marilyn with Beads” that Boty is photographed with by John Aston in a print owned by the National Portrait Gallery. Tate was adamant the work no longer existed as she felt sure that Boty had chosen to overpaint it with Colour Her Gone, citing the likelihood that the artist was unhappy with the somewhat crude and overlarge rendering of Monroe’s hand holding the beads – and so it has always been listed accordingly here.

John Aston was commissioned by Men Only to photograph Boty for a feature entitled “Pauline Goes Pop” in the March 1963 issue, ultimately returning for a second session as the first set of prints he showed the magazine wasn’t deemed suitable for its readership.

Having had the chance to look again at Colour Her Gone at Gazelli Art House for the first time since 2013 at the exhibition “Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman”, it occurred to me to see what would happen if I montaged the two images together in Photoshop. As per the first image above, the abstract panels looked to me to match nigh on identically, with the central figurative area of the painting maintaining the same width to support Tate’s assertion and I provided Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Gazelli with printouts to propose the theory.

Happily, the two galleries chose to jointly commission a detailed analysis of the work, resulting in the recent announcements from Gazelli Art House and news article from Artnet:

“Exciting news involving Gazelli Art House, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, paulineboty.org, and Dr Sue Tate was recently revealed during Gazelli’s book launch and talk on 23rd January 2024. Together with Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Gazelli Art House conducted a reflectogram (an image taken from beneath an artwork’s surface) validating the ongoing research efforts led by Dr. Sue Tate and Christopher Gregory (paulineboty.org).
In a stunning revelation, an entirely new narrative for Pauline Boty’s famed painting Colour Her Gone (1962) has come to light. A reflectogram has shown the iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe was painted over an earlier image of the star, Marilyn with Beads. This was long thought to be a lost painting, and can be traced back to a 1962 photograph by John Aston. Boty’s Pop Art aesthetic, characterised by broad brushwork and flat perspective, initially suggests a straightforward technique, however reflectography has exposed the intricate evolution of the composition.
Painted alterations, particularly to the top of the right-hand colour field panel and the central green ribbon, indicate contemporaneous changes, suggesting a wholesale repainting of the artwork. Pentimenti (visible traces of earlier painting beneath painted layers), showcasing shifts in pearl positions and nostril locations, reflect the artist’s organic design approach.
Overall, infrared reflectography (IRR) indicates not just changes in colour panel forms but also hints at alterations to colours used. The transparency of the green upper design in infrared suggests a different initial colour, opening avenues for exploration into pigment variations. The reflectogram invites a closer examination of this artistic transformation, offering a unique glimpse into the complex layers of Colour Her Gone.
Colour Her Gone was lent to Gazelli Art House for Pauline Boty: A Portrait (2023-24) by Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

‘I had long thought that Marilyn with Beads was not a lost work but lay under Colour Her Gone. The reflectogram gives us conclusive evidence. Here as in other paintings Boty has radically reworked a composition until she had clinched the image that expressed exactly what she wanted to say”. The reflectogram also allows to see, as the report states, “the highly complex development of the composition” and “a high level of planning”, refuting criticisms of slapdash work.’
— Dr. Sue Tate, Freelance Art Historian”

As a footnote both Boty’s source image of Monroe from Town magazine and the paintings’s title originate from the same month of November 1962. In the latter case it was the release date of the single My Colouring Book by among others, Barbra Streisand, with its original closing refrain of “Colour him gone”. Clearly the song made an impression on the artist as she took its title to name another of her works, also including typed fragments of its lyrics, applied using Letraset.

To see Artnet’s write-up of the report’s confirmation, please see here: [link]