New data on the work of Van Gogh

AMSTERDAM. The painting "The Bedroom", painted by Vincent Van Gogh in 1888, with its honey-yellow bed, comfortably located in the corner of a sky-blue room, is easily recognizable by art lovers. However, how much our view of this canvas would have changed if we had learned that initially the walls of the room were painted by the artist in purple, and the painting itself became an expression of the artist’s struggle with his own demons and pursued very specific goals.

The famous color scheme of the picture, so it looks now

Restored by researchers version of the original picture

Nice appearance and blue walls are caused by the destruction of the pigment in the picture. This became apparent after the colossal work on the work of Van Gogh, hundreds of his canvases, a palette, paints, letters, notes, etc., which was done by scientists from the Shell oil company in collaboration with the Dutch agency for cultural heritage and curators of the Van Gogh Museum )Van Gogh Museum), which owns the world’s largest collection of post-impressionist works.

The analytical work lasted for eight years, and, as Nina Siegal writes in her article for The New York Times, she led scientists to an “out of the ordinary” new understanding of the artist’s life story. According to the director of the Van Gogh Museum, Axel Rüger, the new data will help rethink the understanding of his temperament and personality as a whole.

The results of the study will be presented at the newly opened Van Gogh at Work exhibition. The exposition is composed of more than 200 works and drawings by Van Gogh himself and his contemporaries, including Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard.

“Now we know that Van Gogh was a very methodical artist, and this understanding runs counter to the general myth that he had a manic psyche, was often insane and just threw paint on the canvas,” says Mr. Roger. “He was a man who actually knew very well the properties of the materials that he used in his work, knew how to use them and deliberately built the composition of his canvases. These findings are fundamental in understanding Van Gogh as an artist. He was very focused. ”

Using electron microscopy and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, which reveals parts of the pigment, the researchers found that in the early stages, Van Gogh used a special grid to build the image perspective, which helped him correctly convey the proportions and depth of the landscapes. Later, when he acquired unlimited technical skills, he abandoned these nets. Like many artists, he reworked certain paintings repeatedly, in order to improve the desired effect.

“Now we know much more about the pigments Van Gogh used and how they could change color over time,” says Nienke Bakker, curator of the exhibition. “This is very important for our understanding of his works, and how they need to be restored. The colors of the paintings are still very bright, but initially they were even brighter, especially the red shades. ”

Ralph Haswell, chief scientist at Shell Global Solutions, said that at the turn of the 20th century, artists had just begun to buy ready-made paints in stores, rather than mixing them themselves in studios. “One of the drawbacks of this change was that even the artists themselves could not predict how the new colors will behave,” he said. “The chemical industry grew extremely fast, all possible shades appeared on sale, but probably even the manufacturers themselves could not predict how long they will remain stable. And so it happened in the case of the violet color of Van Gogh, which was used to paint the walls of his room in Arles. Due to the fact that the red component in violet faded much faster, probably, even during the life of Van Gogh, he left behind only a blue color. ”

Ninke Bakker believes that such metamorphoses with his paintings could not scare Van Gogh. To a large extent, a self-taught artist, he did not consider any of his works to be final. “He wanted to express his individual way of seeing the world, and each work moved him toward this goal,” said Ms. Bakker.

“It would seem that a slight change in the hue of the original makes the image in the picture more relaxed,” says Marije Vellekoop, head of research at the Van Gogh Museum. “Perhaps this is exactly what he wanted to express in this picture - a sense of peace.”

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru