There’s a fresh face on Vincent van Gogh’s art. It comes in the form of a never before seen portrait uncovered using new X-ray technology under the painting “Patch of Grass.” Dutch scientists were able to use a new technique using “synchrotron radiation induced X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy” to look at the painting. It was suspected of being a repainting, but it was never quite clear exactly what was underneath.
Some masters have been known to repaint over canvases, especially van Gogh, who painted over roughly a third of his paintings. Likely this was an economical desision, as he was known to keep a budget and use cheap materials such as burlap as canvases. Another Old Master known to repaint was Leonardo, who studies have shown has worked and reworked certain areas and under-paintings in a frenzy until he was satisfied. He never really was satisfied, however, and left a great deal of work unfinished.
It’s always exciting to hear of new finds from X-rays on historic masterpiece paintings showing different things underneath. They can give historians a new perspective on the artist’s style and technique, and even their skill level, which can be tracked throughout the course of the painter’s career. The finds can also help to judge whether a work is authentic or not.
Among mistakes and different versions of the finished products, X-rays have revealed interesting surprises like the Dutch word for “sex” under a Rembrandt (subliminal advertising?). Techniques are used to see all the layers of the painting, which was helpful in figuring out that the Mona Lisa’s smile was over 30 layers of paint. It’s amazing how we can get a glimpse of the artist’s methods. We can practically reconstruct the paintings stroke by stroke.
I commented the other day that we can only imagine what paintings the artist could have created if his life had not ended prematurely. This discovery is like seeing something new from the artist, or finding a long lost canvas somewhere. Vincent could never have dreamed that this mysterious woman would see the light of day.
Comments are closed