Paul Gauguin, “Tahitian Pastorals”: Study of Painting Materials

Abstract

A study is made of Paul Gauguin’s painting “Tahitian Pastorals” painted by him in 1892–1893, during his first stay in Tahiti. The painting was carried out on canvas in the technique of oil painting. To study the stratigraphy of the layers and the pigment composition of the paint layers, the method of polarization microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis are used. The results of the study show that chalk from silt deposits was used as the primer. Very thin paint layers, the thickness of which varies from 10 to 30 μm, are applied in one layer on the primer. Pigments such as viridian, ultramarine, cinnabar, arsenic copper, zinc white, lead white, chalk, and barite are revealed in the paint layers. Using the method of pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, it is shown that beeswax was used as a transparent coating on the surface of the painting, which penetrated into the thickness of the paint layers and the primer of the painting during its life. The conducted research allows the presence of later layers of varnish, restoration records and residues of strengthening glue over the wax coating to be determined. The results of the study of the painting “Tahitian Pastorals” are of practical importance for further study, restoration, storage and transportation in case of the exhibition of paintings in other museums of other works by Gauguin from the collection of the State Hermitage.