Researchers at the University of Jyväskylä in the Department of Mathematical Information Technology have officially confirmed what they've long suspected, that the 1891 work "A Haystack in the Evening Sun" was indeed painted by the bearded Impressionist who painted all those other haystacks -- Claude Monet himself.

To verify the claim, the team set out to unearth, date and authenticate Monet’s signature from the piece, which for decades has remained covered in paint. According to Phys.org, the pastel colored painting, which has been owned by the the Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundationsince the 1950's, was investigated at the University in the Recenart Research Center for Art, where they used a hyperspectral camera to examine the elemental composition of the work. Said camera captured pictures of 256 different wavelengths in the near-infrared region of the painting, a region not visible to the human eye.

"The camera is principally operating as a scanner, which scans one line at a time," researcher Ilkka Pölönen told ArtDaily. "The optics includes a prism structure which diffuses the light’s wavelength order, a custom-made sensor is used capable of recording infrared radiation. When the camera is moved using the scanner an image of the whole picture can be obtained."