British scientists have revived a “hidden” image of two semi-naked wrestlers that Vincent Van Gogh painted almost 135 years ago.
In 2012, art historians utilized x-rays to uncover a wrestling scene hidden under a painting named “Still life with meadow flowers and roses” that had been originally credited to an unidentified creator.
Researchers came to the conclusion that both the portrayal of wrestling and the painting above it were by Van Gogh based on information about the artist’s time spent studying at a Belgian art institution.
Five years before, an x-ray of the painting on a canvas measuring 100 by 80 centimeters (40 by 31 inches) had only produced a blurry picture of the wrestlers.
The wrestlers, as well as the applied colours and brushstrokes, were more clearly visible in the 2012 X-ray.
The picture, however, was still in black and white and was not very clear.
Three researchers from the UK have now successfully recreated the original color composition using X-rays, AI, and 3-D printing.
Mathematician Jesper Eriksson collaborated with neuroscientist Anthony Bourached and physicist George Cann, both of whom are University College London PhD candidates.
All three are employed by a business called Oxia Palus, where they use technology to revive “dormant” works of art that are buried under other pieces.
After famously chopping off his left ear two years earlier, Van Gogh shot himself to death in 1890.
According to Mr. Bourached, his team utilized data from the analysis of hundreds of paintings by Van Gogh’s brushstrokes using a computer program to model how the original representation of the wrestlers would have appeared.
It is now difficult to determine how closely it resembles the original picture since the data is lacking, he added.
It is unquestionably the best prediction we can make given the state of technology, in my opinion.
This week, the rebuilt wrestlers will be on display at the Focus Art Fair, which is taking place in Paris’s Louvre museum. It is anticipated to draw bids in the tens of thousands of pounds.
In a letter to his brother Theo in 1886, Van Gogh made mention of the paintings he had covered up, writing: “This week I painted a gigantic picture with two naked torsos – two wrestlers […] and I really enjoy doing it.”
Through a project they have called “NeoMasters,” the researchers’ most recent effort to recreate lost works uses Oxia Palus.
“With possibly thousands more pieces of art hiding asleep under current paintings… reviving the world’s lost art has just just started,” the scientists write on their website.
Three other recreated pieces are on display by the team at the Louvre. They include “Standing Female Nude,” another Van Gogh work that is thought to have been created in 1886.
La Crau with a View of Montmajour is the landscape painting he overpainted to create.
It follows the discovery of a fresh self-portrait by Van Gogh on the reverse of his masterwork, Head Of A Peasant Woman, in July.
It was found during an X-ray that was done in advance of a new show in Edinburgh. A bearded guy wearing a brimmed hat and a neckerchief was shown in the new piece.
It reminded me of his 1888 self-portrait with grey felt hat.
A woman’s face was discovered under Van Gogh’s 1887 painting Patch of Grass in 2008 thanks to a new X-ray method.
Experts were able to map the molecules on the image thanks to a process known as X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy.
Underneath the painting, previous investigation uncovered the hazy silhouette of a head.
Over the course of two days, researchers used a synchrotron, a device that accelerates subatomic particles, to produce a pencil-thin beam of very powerful X-rays to scan the image.
Atoms in the paint layers of the painting were subjected to an intense bombardment that led them to produce “fluorescent” X-rays of their own that could be used to map the chemicals they were made of.
The scientists, lead by Professor Koen Janssens from the University of Antwerp in Belgium and Dr. Joris Dik from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, were therefore able to rebuild the secret picture in exquisite detail.
Using components from certain paint pigments, a “color picture” of the hidden piece of art might be created.
A square of 17.5 by 17.5 centimeters was occupied by the woman’s head, which was tilted slightly to the left.