Van Gogh's Sunflowers are fading. Great masterpiece at risk

by Redazione , published on 04/06/2018
Categories: Art and artists / Disclaimer
Van Gogh's Sunflowers are fading: analysis by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam certifies deterioration.

One of Vincent van Gogh ’s (Zundert, 1853 - Auvers-sur-Oise, 1890) most famous masterpieces, the Sunflower series, now housed in several museums around the world, is fading, an analysis by experts at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam reveals. Van Gogh painted this work using three types of yellow pigments, two of which are deteriorating with exposure to the sun. This discovery was made possible by a chemical mapping process called “macrosopic X-ray powder diffraction,” which allowed the painting to be examined without ever having to invade the surface.

“We were able to see where van Gogh used the most light-sensitive yellow, those are the areas that restorers should work on,” said Frederik Vanmeert, the University of Antwerp expert who is studying the paintings. “We also saw that he used an emerald green and red lead paint in very small areas of the painting that are bound to become whiter over time.”

Marije Vellekoop, director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, said, “Obviously, we monitor the discoloration of various pigments and we are currently processing all the research results. After that we will determine how to deal with it. We know that this yellow pigment was used a lot by van Gogh, and we assume that the same thing could happen in other paintings.”

The problem stems from the fact that van Gogh used poor-quality pigments. Already in 2015 another study, in which the same professor Vanmeert who is working on the Sunflowers was involved, had come to the same conclusion, and we had also reported on it in our magazine by devoting an in-depth article to the issue.

Van Gogh's Sunflowers are fading. Great masterpiece at risk
Van Gogh's Sunflowers are fading. Great masterpiece at risk


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