Experts have adopted X-ray technology normally used to detect forgeries on a selection of 12 paintings thought to conceal earlier outlines.
The investigation, is taking place in a makeshift dark room at The Lowry. It follows the discovery in 1994 of a finished portrait of a lady underneath the well-known work Man with the Red Eyes.
Team leader and leading specialist is Dr Nicholas Eastaugh. He is focusing on a collection of early paintings, including portraits of Lowry's mother and father, in the run up to an exhibition in July which will showcase X-rays alongside the scanned images.
Dr Eastaugh said: "The clarity of the compositions we may find under the paintings will vary, but from what we have seen, so far, Lowry had complicated techniques."
The X-ray procedure has been used by Dr Eastaugh on paintings including Botticelli's Adoration and Rubens' Massacre of the Innocents.
Art conservator and local Lowry expert, Eddie Bowes, who is helping the investigation, is confident the X-rays will reveal preparatory outlines, test markings and possibly more completed paintings.
Mr Bowes said: "The main reason Lowry would paint over earlier works would be because he didn't want to waste anything. The canvases weren't particularly expensive, but he was a rent collector and very frugal."
A Rembrandt self-portrait that lay undiscovered for centuries sold for £7m last year after X-rays helped reveal an impostor had painted overthe original. The tests guided restorers in removing the later additions.
Lindsay Brooks, The Lowry's curator, said: "There is no question of us removing a painting which has been painted over an earlier work. They are as Lowry intended them to be."
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