Amsterdam — There were 35 known self-portraits of Vincent van Gogh in the world. It seems that it has changed this week.
“You can now add another photo to that number,” said Louis Van Tilbeau, senior curator of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Thursday.
The Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, with the support of the Van Gogh Museum, announced that it has discovered what appears to be a new Van Gogh self-portrait, hidden behind another work by a Dutch artist and covered with paperboard. Did.
The 1885 painting, “Peasant woman’s headIs part of a series of portraits by Van Gogh in Nuenen, the Netherlands, and probably his famous work “Potato eaters.. The National Museum took an X-ray of the work in preparation for the next exhibition and noticed another image on the back.
“It’s very exciting,” said Frances Fowle, senior curator of French art at the National Museum of Art. “It’s like getting a new painting for your collection.”
Next exhibition “Impressionist taste: Contemporary French art from millet to MatisseBegins July 30th and continues until November 13th. Van Gogh was a Dutchman, but developed his style in Paris and Southern France and is considered by art historians to be part of the French Post-Impressionist movement.
Fowle said no one actually saw the self-portrait because it was invisible to the naked eye.
However, Leslie Stephenson, an art restorer at the National Museum of Art, first discovered a self-portrait hidden by X-rays and sent a text message with a photo to Fowle. When she received her message, Fowl was in line at the fish store and “I was surprised to see such a ghostly face,” she said.
“It’s a complicated process, so I won’t remove the paperboard right away,” she added. “You have a layer of these glues, so you need to remove them very carefully.”
The museum has been donated by Edinburgh lawyer Alexander Mateland in 1960 as part of a collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, including works by Paul Gauguin and Edgar Degas. I own. The museum already owns three Van Gogh paintings, and Foule said he considers his self-portrait to be the fourth.
Most of Van Gogh’s self-portraits were painted, especially during his stay in Paris from 1886 to 1888. He didn’t have enough money, so he reused the canvas used in his other Dutch works. He also couldn’t afford to hire a model, so he often turned the mirror to his face.
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam owns five double-sided paintings of Nuenen’s work on one side and self-portraits on the other. Therefore, Van Tilbo said the painting fits perfectly into the series. “In our museum, we know of other portraits hidden under the paperboard on the other side,” he said.
Van Gogh’s independent expert, Sjraarvan Heugten, said he was convinced that the hidden painting was a true self-portrait by the artist, based on the material on new discoveries posted online by the museum.
“It’s unlikely that anyone will pick up a real Van Gogh painting and draw a fake painting on the back,” he added. There is plenty of evidence that this is genuine. “
Still, was it probably early to claim the discovery of a new Van Gogh painting that was previously only seen as X-rays?
“Scientifically speaking, I haven’t seen it yet, so I don’t know it’s a self-portrait,” said Rachel Esner, an associate professor of art history at the University of Amsterdam, who specializes in 19th-century art.
“But it’s great to be him,” she added. “It may be a bit premature, but when you look at it objectively, it seems completely legal to me, given all the science behind it.”
Foret said the Scottish National Gallery will wait to remove the paperboard until the “Peasant Woman’s Head” is on display at the museum’s show, adding that it expects the self-portrait to be open to the public in 2023. rice field.
“I now want to tear it from behind,” she said. “But we have to be very, very careful.”
