X-Rays Reveal Hidden Van Gogh Self-Portrait
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
A routine cataloging procedure of a painting by Vincent van Gogh at the National Galleries in Scotland yielded an unexpected discovery: a hidden self-portrait on the back of the canvas. The portrait was revealed while conservationists were conducting an X-ray analysis of Head of a Peasant Woman as part of a cataloging exercise in preparation for an upcoming exhibition. Once the exhibit opens, visitors can view the X-ray image through a specially crafted lightbox at the center of the display.
[...] Last year, we reported that researchers used infrared reflectography to peer through the upper layers of paint of the famous 1788 portrait, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, of the 18h century French chemist Antoine Lavoisier and his wife, Marie-Anne, by Jaques-Louis David. The resulting reflectogram showed evidence of a carbon-based black underdrawing and dark, unclear shapes hinting at possible significant compositional changes. The team also used macro X-ray fluorescence imaging to map out the distribution of elements in the paint pigments-including the paint used below the surface-to create detailed elemental maps for further study.
Nor is this the first time a Van Gogh painting has been subjected to X-ray analysis. Back in 2008, European scientists used synchrotron radiation to reconstruct the hidden portrait of a peasant woman painted by Van Gogh. The artist, known for reusing his canvases, had painted over it when he created 1887's Patch of Grass. The synchrotron radiation excites the atoms on the canvas, which then emit X-rays of their own that a fluorescence detector can pick up. Each element in the painting has its own X-ray signature, so scientists can identify the distribution of each in the many layers of paint.
[...] The Edinburgh painting is not van Gogh's only double-sided painting with reused canvas. In 1929, the Dutch conservator Jan Cornelius Traas removed cardboard backing from three Nuenen paintings, revealing hidden portraits on the reverse. And we can report that it has long been suspected that there could be something on the hidden side of Head of a Peasant Woman.
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