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European researchers have used a powerful new X-ray technique to reveal a hidden van Gogh beneath another of his paintings. The portrait of an unknown peasant woman lies below one of the Dutch Master's green and pleasant landscapes. The work could now be used to seek out, in unprecedented detail, masterpieces hidden beneath other paintings. The painting Patch of Grass by Vincent van Gogh was not considered one of his most famous works but that has now changed thanks to work by an international European research team. Joris Dik of Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands, chemist Koen Janssens and Geert Van Der Snickt of the University of Antwerp, Belgium, Luuk van der Loeff of the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, The Netherlands, Karen Rickers of DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron), in Hamburg, and Marine Cotte of the Palais du Louvre in Paris and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, used a new technique with synchrotron radiation induced X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy in their study. Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) is one of the founding fathers of modern painting and is perhaps best known for his use of vivid colours, vibrant post-impressionistic brush strokes, and a short and highly productive career. Just how prolific was van Gogh has only come to light in recent years with the development of non-destructive analytical techniques that can virtually strip away the upper layers of paint on his work. Van Gogh, it turns out, often doubled the effort of other painters as many as one in three of his paintings reveal an earlier image beneath the final picture. "Van Gogh would often reuse the canvas of an abandoned painting and paint a new or modified composition on top," Materials expert and art historian Dik and colleagues explain, "These hidden paintings offer a unique and intimate insight into the genesis of his works." Patch of Grass was painted by Van Gogh in Paris in 1887 and is owned by the Kröller-Müller Museum. Art historians were already aware of the vague outline of a face behind the painting from earlier studies, but had not seen any detail of the face. Until now standard analytical techniques have revealed little detail of these hidden master's. Tube-based X-ray radiation transmission radiography (XRR) commonly used in similar studies reveals the absorption contrast due to heavy metal ions in the pigments used, including lead in lead white and mercury in vermillion. However, the technique is limited because the X-ray absorbance is simply the sum of all element-specific absorbencies, which means that the presence of weakly absorbing elements is swamped by the higher concentrations of lead and mercury, for instance. Moreover, a canvas was usually primed with a layer of lead white, which again strongly affects the contrast of lower concentrations in other pigments. In addition, the polychromatic nature of X-ray tubes also reduces contrast. Now, Dik and colleagues report the first application of synchrotron radiation based X-ray fluorescence mapping to visualize the face of a peasant woman hidden under the work Patch of Grass. The team recorded decimetre-scale, X-ray fluorescence intensity maps, reflecting the distribution of specific elements in the paint layers. This technique provided them with a view of the hidden face in unprecedented detail. "The distribution of mercury and antimony in the red and light tones, respectively, enabled an approximate colour reconstruction of the flesh tones," the researchers add, "This reconstruction proved to be the missing link for the comparison of the hidden face with Van Gogh's known paintings." Given the resemblance between the latent image and one of the artist's final works, one might argue, that the hidden work was simply a draft and that the painting on top was to avoid wasting an expensive canvas. Indeed, "One striking feature that emerged is Van Gogh's frequent reuse of paintings in order to recycle the canvas," the researchers explain, "The artist would simply paint a new composition on top of an existing work. This is usually attributed to the artist's lifelong economic hardship and the rapid, energetic evolution of his artistic ideas." Related links:
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Another peasant face |
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