March 23, 2011
We better hurry up and figure out which of the paintings is which from the Van Gogh pie charts. According to this fascinating story about Van Gogh’s paintings there is a chemical reaction taking place that is changing the yellows to greens.
“If you’ve noticed your favorite Van Goghs getting darker, it’s not because you’ve caught the troubled Dutch painter’s depression. Some of the master Post-Impressionist’s late images, which he painted in the South of France, have succumbed to a chemical reaction called reduction, dulling some bright pigments and alarming preservationists worldwide.”
Vincent Van Gogh, Vase with twelve Sunflowers, Arles, January 1889
I am aware that the colors I have seen are aged and unlike the painting in its original state but this takes that notion to another level. I will be on the edge of my seat waiting for the outcome.
