Which alternative version of the Mona Lisa is believed by some to be an earlier work by Leonardo?

The Isleworth Mona Lisa is the alternative version believed by some to be an earlier work by Leonardo.

The painting depicts the same sitter and general subject as the Louvre’s Mona Lisa, but the woman appears younger. It is painted on canvas rather than the Louvre painting’s poplar panel, and it includes visible columns at the sides. Those differences have helped fuel the theory that Leonardo produced it before refining the better-known portrait.

The work was reportedly brought from Italy to England in the 1780s and came to public attention in 1913, when art connoisseur Hugh Blaker acquired it. It took its unofficial name from Blaker’s studio in Isleworth, west London. In 1915, John R. Eyre formally proposed that it was an earlier version of the Louvre painting.

The attribution remains controversial, not settled fact. Supporters cite stylistic comparisons, technical testing and similarities in the faces; skeptics attribute it to Leonardo’s workshop or another Leonardeschi artist. That uncertainty is why the careful wording “believed by some” matters.