The recent use of multispectral systems as a noncontact method for analysis of artworks has already shown promising results. This study explains the application of a novel portable multispectral system based on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for artwork imaging. This method provides spectral information in a spectral range from 370 to 1630 nm with a 25 cm x 25 cm field of view by using two different image sensors in synchrony with 23 bands of irradiation. The spectral information for each point is estimated and validated using the pseudo-inverse and spline interpolation methods for spectral estimation and three different evaluation metrics. The results of the metrics obtained with both estimation methods show a general good performance of the system over the whole spectral range. The experiments also showed that the selection of the training set for the pseudo-inverse estimation has a great influence in its performance, and thus, it defines whether or not the pseudo-inverse outperforms the spline interpolation method. The system is applied in situ to the study of Catalan art masterpieces, and the results demonstrate the potential of a cost-effective and versatile system using various off-the-shelf elements to reconstruct color information and to reveal features not previously identified. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 40, 398-407, 2015