Pablo Picasso, "The Bathers"

Pablo Picasso, The Bathers (Les Baigneuses), 1918; © Succession Picasso / RMN - Grand Palais (Musée National Picasso, Paris).

Picasso's famous "Bathers" is seen above on display at the Musée National Picasso, Paris. The modern reproduction below has made extensive changes, including the falsely yellow and green coloration, and the heightened contrast, resulting in significant loss of detail. Also note the mark of the art vendor upper left — always an indication that the image might not offer a faithful representation of the original. It's helpful to remember that even abstract artwork will often retain natural colors in the sky, water, land, flesh tones, and so on. Artificial coloring frequently means that someone has tampered with the photo or created a new artwork that's only loosely based on the authentic work, freely altering the original elements to create a new, possibly more market-friendly, interpretation.

Altered version of a painting by Pablo Picasso.