Scanning XRF investigation of a Flower Still Life and its underlying composition from the collection of the Kröller–Müller Museum

Abstract

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) can be considered to be one of the most influential artists in the history of European painting and most of his life is well documented in his letters to his brother Theo and his friends. Due to van Gogh’s practice to reuse older paintings as substrates for newer works, several of the paintings he described in his correspondence lie hidden under his later works and are today considered lost. In this paper we describe the analytical aspects of the investigation of Flower Still Life (Fig. 1a) and its underlying