Van Gogh’s ‘triple painting’ revealed by discoveries beneath the surface – The Art Newspaper

A Van Gogh autumn panorama was painted on prime of a wholly totally different scene of a church tower, based on conservators at Rotterdam’s Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum. Then a yr after portray Poplars close to Nuenen above the church scene in November 1885, the artist extensively reworked the second image, on the finish of 1886, making this third picture brighter and extra in keeping with his later exuberant use of color

The ultimate model of Poplars close to Nuenen goes on show tomorrow (7 February), after 4 years of analysis and conservation work. This was mandatory due to the severely cracked and fragile paint floor and degraded varnish. The autumnal panorama now sings out in a approach that it has not achieved for almost a century.

The portray started life in July 1884 as fairly a distinct composition, a moonlit view of the Protestant previous church tower and graveyard in Nuenen, the village within the south of the Netherlands the place Vincent was residing together with his household. The church was being demolished and all that was left by July was the tower (Van Gogh additionally made six surviving work of this scene).

The unique composition may be seen in an x-ray picture of Poplars close to Nuenen. On this composition, the extra distant tower of the Catholic church can simply be made out additional away, barely to the suitable of the Protestant tower. This now makes it doable to establish the spot the place Van Gogh arrange his easel, south of the village.

Simply over a yr after creating the unique image, Van Gogh reused the canvas, by portray an autumnal scene of an avenue of bushes with three figures. Often the artist reused his canvases to save cash, however it appears stunning that he did so on this case, because it seems to have been a profitable authentic composition. It could later be singled out for reward by his artist good friend Anton van Rappard, who wrote that the church tower scene ”struck me so deeply”.

One wonders whether or not a deep psychological situation lay behind Vincent’s choice to color over the church tower and graveyard. This material was deeply linked to his father Theodorus, with whom he had a really poor relationship. Theodorus, the Protestant pastor in Nuenen, died in March 1885, eight months after Van Gogh first painted the tower, and he was buried within the depicted churchyard. One can solely speculate, however maybe masking over the graveyard was an try to erase painful recollections.

Regardless of the motive, in November 1885 Vincent reused the canvas to color the autumnal panorama. Writing to his brother Theo, he described it as “a view of the village behind a row of poplars with yellow leaves” and included a bit of sketch. In one other letter he described the scene as “a symphony in yellow”.

The third picture

Later in November 1885 Van Gogh left his mother and father’ home in Nuenen, transferring first to Antwerp after which in February 1886 to Paris, to stick with Theo. It was there, in all probability in September-December, that he reworked Poplars close to Nuenen.

There was some early proof to counsel that he might need reworked the portray in Paris, however this was largely ignored till very not too long ago. Theo’s brother-in-law Andries Bonger had written in 1903 that Vincent “labored on it later in Paris” and “within the autumn glow, there’s certainly extra exaltation than you will see within the work from his time in Nuenen, which is normally melancholic and meditative”.

Regardless of Bonger’s letter, Van Gogh specialists lengthy thought-about it unlikely that he would have reworked a portray achieved nicely over a yr earlier. Nevertheless, conservators have now found that Bonger was right. They recognized pigments which the artist utilized in Paris, however not (or hardly) in Nuenen: cerulean and cobalt blues, strontium chromate and cadmium yellows, emerald and viridian greens and two natural reds.

The areas of overpaint are primarily within the pathway beneath the bushes, the leaves of the poplars and the sky simply above the horizon and within the higher half between the bushes. These adjustments lighten the composition and introduce thicker impasto paint. Van Gogh in all probability did this when he was starting to be uncovered to Impressionist artwork in Paris.

Sandra Kisters, director of collections and analysis, says that “the additions made in Paris in 1886 have turned out to be rather more consequential than we thought.”

A thriller stays

Analysis and conservation of the portray was a sluggish course of. Essentially the most delicate activity was to take away previous, discoloured varnish, and this now makes the image a lot brighter and clearer.

One drawback proved to be the results of unlucky harm. The floor had suffered way back from an ugly collection of drips, which had run down the image. A scientific evaluation revealed that this was virtually definitely attributable to linseed oil, however there appears to be no motive why this substance would have been used throughout earlier restoration efforts.

The vertical drips ran all the best way throughout the complete width of the paint floor, which means that it was not the results of an accident (an accident would in all probability have been closely concentrated in a single, smaller space). The drips weren’t current within the prime few centimetres of the composition, presumably as a result of this space had been protected by a body, which was in all probability first placed on the image in 1903. Van Gogh was not the offender for the drips.

Conservator Erika Smeenk-Metz admits that the reason for the drips stay a thriller. She has toned down a few of the extra apparent ones with reversible overpaint, so they’re now hardly seen.

Right into a Dutch museum

In 1903 Poplars close to Nuenen grew to become the primary Van Gogh portray to be acquired by a Dutch museum, simply 13 years after the artist’s demise. The image had all the time been fragile and it was calmly restored when it first arrived and extra essentially, with relining, within the Nineteen Thirties.

The portray remained in Rotterdam till 1941. To guard it from bombing (which might quickly devastate the town), it was first despatched to a camouflaged wartime bunker within the sand dunes north of Amsterdam and a yr later to a cave close to Maastricht.

In 1985 Poplars close to Nuenen was lent to an exhibition in Japan, however a conservation drawback was found. The museum’s conservators now report that “the portray unexpectedly needed to be handled by a Japanese restorer below the watchful eye of the courier on account of paint loss and to forestall the raised paint from flaking off”. 

In view of its fragile situation, it comes as a shock that Poplars close to Nuenen was lent to 9 additional exhibitions after that. Most not too long ago, in 2022, it was loaned for eight days to the Tefaf artwork truthful in Maastricht (this was the event when armed robbers stole jewels reported to be price over €35m), inflicting some concern to conservators. They now remark that Tefaf made “a daring request: they requested for the mortgage of the portray for the 2022 truthful, and regardless of its excessive fragility the museum agreed.”

A show entitled Analysis on the Rail: Van Gogh’s Poplars close to Nuenen is now opening to the general public on the Depot of the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum (till 7 February 2027). This show title displays the Depot’s unconventional presentation, with Poplars close to Nunen hung from a metallic rail. It’s accompanied by a list, Symphony in Yellow, which particulars the analysis.

This present show consists of two different Van Gogh work on mortgage: Autumn Panorama at Nightfall (early 1885, Centraal Museum, Utrecht) and The Previous Church Tower at Nueuen (Could-June 1885, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam). There are additionally a number of different related landscapes by different artists of the time.

Martin Bailey is a number one Van Gogh specialist and particular correspondent for The Artwork Newspaper. He has curated exhibitions on the Barbican Artwork Gallery, Compton Verney/Nationwide Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain.

Martin has written various bestselling books on Van Gogh’s years in France: The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013, UK and US), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016, UK and US), Starry Night time: Van Gogh on the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale: Auvers and the Artist’s Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln 2021, UK and US). The Sunflowers are Mine (2024, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale (2024, UK and US) are additionally now obtainable in a extra compact paperback format.

His different latest books embody Residing with Vincent van Gogh: The Houses & Landscapes that formed the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, UK and US), which gives an outline of the artist’s life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has been reissued (Batsford 2021, UK and US). My Buddy Van Gogh/Emile Bernard gives the primary English translation of Bernard’s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UKand US).

To contact Martin Bailey, please e-mail vangogh@theartnewspaper.com

Please word that he doesn’t undertake authentications.

Discover all of Martin’s adventures with Van Gogh right here