Despite the fact that time wreaks havoc on the paintings of great artists, we continue to look at paintings for signs. Just as we admire Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa for an answer in his eyes, we also marvel at Vincent van Gogh’s paintings and their details.
Most of the secrets of these paintings are revealed in the technique, color and material. Whether due to exposure to light, humidity, air or the simple passage of time, the paintings present alterations that mainly transform the pigment.
For example, in the painting Sunflowers, which Van Gogh painted to decorate his friend Paul Gauguin’s bedroom, pigment was the key. The colors of the 19th century were strong and bright, especially yellow had a very particular light. Van Gogh’s sunflowers had this deep yellow. However, today that painting does not have a deep yellow; the tone is somewhat muted and with a tendency to brown. Science explains this pigment mystery as the result of exposure to ultraviolet rays.
The chemicals in the yellow change due to the reduction of chromium in the color. This also happened in the painting Bank of the Seine and in View of Arles with lilies. In all of them yellow is present, which unleashes the following mystery: why did Van Gogh use so much yellow?
Vincent van Gogh’s favoritism for yellow
Yellow is not a coincidence in Van Gogh paintings. Thoroughly analyzing the painter’s environment, the presence of Digitalis purpurea was discovered. This substance was a medicine used to treat different pathologies. In fact, Digitalis was known to have sedative and antiepileptic properties.
Those patients who consumed it in excess could develop xanthopsia, a pathology that alters the perception of colors. In particular, xanthopsia makes objects look yellowish. This means that Van Gogh could have seen the world through the yellow because of the medicine. But not everything was the color of the sun, there was also some blue.
Image: Van Gogh
However, the presence of blue is explained by the existence of green. This means that what was really green, in the eyes of the painter was blue. On the other hand, there was a special technique in his paintings. With almost turbulent touches, The Starry Night and Wheatfield with Crows reflect a unique movement of the brush.
Science considers that this technique was part of a tribute to the theory of fluid turbulence, but this has not yet been verified. Meanwhile, the paintings of Vincent van Gogh and other painters continue to protect the intimate secrets of the time that are gradually revealed.
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