Van Gogh\u2019s Irises and Roses: the contribution of chemical analyses and imaging to the assessment of color changes in the red lake pigments

Silvia A Centeno,Koen Janssens,John Delaney,Geert Van Der Snickt,Federico Carò,Nobuko Shibayama,Charlotte Hale,Anna Cesaratto,Susan Alyson Stein,Kathryn Dooley

doi:10.1186/s40494-017-0131-8

Silvia A Centeno, Koen Janssens + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-017-0131-8

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Abstract

Vincent van Gogh’s still lifes Irises and Roses were investigated to shed light onto the degree to which the paintings had changed, both individually and in relation to each other since they were painted, particularly in regard to the fading of the red lakes. Non-invasive techniques, including macroscopic X-ray fluorescence mapping, reflectance imaging spectroscopy, and X-radiography, were combined with microanalytical techniques in a select number of samples. The in-depth microchemical analysis was necessary to overcome the complications that arise when evaluating by non-invasive methods alone the compositions of passages with complex layering and mixing of paints. The results obtained by these two approaches were complemented by color measurements performed on paint cross-sections and on protected edges, and with historical information provided by the artist’s own descriptions, early reviews and reproductions, and the data was used to carry out digital color simulations that provided, to a certain extent, a visualization of how the paintings may have originally appeared.Graphical abstractIrises, 1890, Vincent van Gogh. The Metropolitan Museum of Art #58.187. Zn (upper right), Pb (bottom left), and Br (bottom right) distribution maps acquired by XRF imaging.

Highlights

Irises and Roses in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), Roses in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Irises at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam were examined in preparation for the exhibition Van Gogh: Irises and Roses, that took place at The Met in 2015, curated by Susan Alyson Stein with a technical examination directed by Charlotte Hale [1]
Irises Over a ground preparation composed principally of lead white, Van Gogh built up the flowers with cobalt blue, zinc white, and eosin red-containing paints, and with Prussian blue and eosin red in the outlines, as reflected in the Pb, Co, Zn, and Br distribution maps presented in Fig. 1b–e, and in the Fe distribution map shown in the Additional file 1: Figure S1
The identification of these pigments was corroborated by Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM–energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS)) analysis on paint cross-sections, some of which are shown below, and on sample scrapings

Summary

Introduction

Irises and Roses in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), Roses in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Irises at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam were examined in preparation for the exhibition Van Gogh: Irises and Roses, that took place at The Met in 2015, curated by Susan Alyson Stein with a technical examination directed by Charlotte Hale [1]. Raman spectroscopy and SEM–EDS analyses of a cross-section removed from the left edge of the painting (Fig. 2d–f ) showed the wet on wet application of eosin red and lead white paints, that the eosin red lake was precipitated on an Al-containing substrate, and that the small dark pink particles present in this sample contain eosin red on a C aCO3 substrate.

Results

Conclusion