Oil Paintings - Art Reproductions

X-rays reveal Van Gogh portrait

A new X-ray technique has revealed a previously unknown portrait of a woman by Vincent van Gogh, which was painted over by the artist.

                                                Vincent van Gogh – Patch of Grass

The peasant woman's face was hidden behind the work Patch of Grass, completed by Van Gogh in Paris in 1887.

Scientists Joris Dik and Koen Janssens used high-intensity X-rays from a particle accelerator to scan the painting and reveal the face beneath.

Vincent van Gogh (1853−1890), one of the founding fathers of modern painting, is best known for his vivid colors, his vibrant painting style, and his short but highly productive career. His productivity is even higher than generally realized, as many of his known paintings cover a previous composition. This is thought to be the case in one-third of his early period paintings. Van Gogh would often reuse the canvas of an abandoned painting and paint a new or modified composition on top. These hidden paintings offer a unique and intimate insight into the genesis of his works. The identity of the peasant woman in the painting is not known.

The powerful X-ray bombardment caused atoms in the picture's layers of paint to emit "fluorescent" X-rays of their own, which indicated the chemicals they originated from. That enabled a colour map of the hidden picture to be produced.

The portrait fills a square area measuring 17.5cm by 17.5cm (6.8 by 6.8 inches). The portrait may have been part of an extensive series of heads painted by van Gogh while staying in the Dutch village of Nuenen, said the researchers. Between October 1884 and May 1885 he painted the heads of peasant models in the dark settings of their huts in the vicinity of the village.

Mr Dik, a materials scientist from Delft University, and Mr Janssens, a chemist from the University of Antwerp in Belgium, published their scientific paper online in the journal Analytical Chemistry.