Art Lovers discussion

This is for stuff about the materials and methods of art and its preservation.

Restoring a masterwork Parts 1-5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMZ7X...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBCgx...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_MZ3...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1z0B...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMjJ0...

"Van Gogh’s True Palette Revealed
By NINA SIEGAL
Published: April 29, 2013

AMSTERDAM — “The Bedroom,” Vincent van Gogh’s 1888 painting, with its honey-yellow bed pressed into the corner of a cozy sky-blue room, is instantly recognizable to art lovers, with his signature contrasting hues. But does our experience of this painting change upon learning that van Gogh had originally depicted those walls in violet, not blue, or that he was less a painter wrestling with his demons and more of a deliberate, goal-oriented artist?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/art...


[Photoshopped to convey original color balance]

"... We now know much more about the pigments van Gogh used and how they might’ve changed color over time,” Ms. Bakker said. “That’s crucial to our understanding of his works, and to know better how to treat them. The colors are still very vibrant, but they would have been even brighter — especially the reds. Some of the reds were much brighter or have completely disappeared since he painted them.”

Ralph Haswell, principal scientist at Shell Global Solutions here, which made its lab facilities and researchers available to the museum, said that at the turn of the 20th century artists had just started buying pigments off the shelf rather than mixing them in the studio. “One of the disadvantages of living in a very changing environment where pigments were very new was that they didn’t always know how things would turn out,” he said. “The chemical industry was growing hugely and they came up with all kinds of colors, but you never knew how long they would remain stable. Some pigments weren’t stable.” That was the case with van Gogh’s violet, used to depict the walls of his room in Arles. Because the red in the purple paint faded prematurely, probably even during van Gogh’s lifetime, it left behind only the blue with which it had been mixed...."

Ed, thanks so much for posting this article.
Ed wrote: ""Van Gogh’s True Palette Revealed
By NINA SIEGAL
Published: April 29, 2013

AMSTERDAM — “The Bedroom,” Vincent van Gogh’s 1888 painting, with its honey-yellow bed pressed into the corner of a cozy ..."

This is really interesting about the pigments used. Thank you.

Susan Bernhardt