Van Gogh’s True Palette Revealed
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Researchers say van Gogh painted the walls in his 1888 picture "The Bedroom" violet, not blue.
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?
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These questions are raised by a new analysis, eight years in the making,
of hundreds of van Gogh’s canvases as well as his palette, pigments,
letters and notebooks by scientists at Shell, the oil company, in
collaboration with the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency and curators at
the newly renovated Van Gogh Museum here, which owns the world’s largest
collection of works by that Dutch Post Impressionist.
The research did not lead to “earth-shattering new insights” that
rewrite van Gogh’s life story, said the director of the Van Gogh Museum,
Axel Rüger, but it could shift the understanding of van Gogh’s
temperament and personality. The results of that study will be revealed
in an exhibition, “Van Gogh at Work,”
which opens on Wednesday and features about 200 paintings and drawings,
150 of them by van Gogh and others by contemporaries, including Paul
Gauguin and Émile Bernard.
“You discover more clearly that van Gogh was a very methodical artist,
which runs counter to the general myth that he was a manic, possibly
slightly deranged man who just spontaneously threw paint at the canvas,”
Mr. Rüger said. “He was actually someone who knew very well about the
properties of the materials he used, how to use them, and also he
created very deliberate compositions. In that sense it’s a major insight
in that it gives us a better notion of van Gogh the artist. He was very
goal-oriented.”
By using an electron microscope and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry,
which reveals the parts of pigments without taking invasive samples,
researchers found that early on van Gogh used perspective frames as a
guide and drew on the canvas to correctly render proportions and depth
of field in his landscapes. Later, as he gained mastery, he abandoned
these grids. Like many artists, he reworked certain paintings repeatedly
to perfect his desired effect. The most important insight was into his
palette, said Nienke Bakker, curator of the show.
“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.
That may have been fine with van Gogh, Ms. Bakker said, since the
largely self-taught artist didn’t regard any of his work as final. He
saw pieces as studies that helped him find his style.
“He wanted to express his individual way of seeing the world, and every
work of art he made was moving him toward that goal,” Ms. Bakker said,
“but he was never satisfied.”
The original hue — seemingly a minor change — presents a more soothing
image, said Marije Vellekoop, head of collections, research and
presentation for the Van Gogh Museum. The purple and yellow are “not a
harsh contrast as we think of now,” she said. “That was something he
wanted to express in that picture — tranquillity and a sense of rest.”
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This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 29, 2013
An earlier version of this article indicated that all three versions of the painting “The Bedroom” were created in 1888. They were created in 1888 and 1889. That version also referred to pigments available for sale at the turn of the 19th century. They became available around the turn of the 20th century.
Correction: April 29, 2013
An earlier version of this article indicated that all three versions of the painting “The Bedroom” were created in 1888. They were created in 1888 and 1889. That version also referred to pigments available for sale at the turn of the 19th century. They became available around the turn of the 20th century.
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