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Were Van Gogh's Blues Violet? Van Gogh’s True Palette Revealed
(about 9 hours later)
AMSTERDAM — “The Bedroom,” Vincent van Gogh’s 1888 painting, with its honey-yellow sleigh bed pressed into the corner of a cozy sky-blue room, is instantly recognizable to art lovers. Its contrasting hues are a signature of his late style. But does it change our experience of the painter to learn that he had originally depicted those walls in violet, not blue? AMSTERDAM — “The Bedroom,” Vincent van Gogh’s 1888 painting, with its honey-yellow bed pressed into the corner of a cozy sky-blue room, is instantly recognizable to art lovers, with his signature contrasting hues. But does our experience of this painting change upon learning that van Gogh had originally depicted those walls in violet, not blue, or that he was less a painter wrestling with his demons and more of a deliberate, goal-oriented artist?
That is one of the findings of eight years of analysis of van Gogh’s palette, pigments, letters, notebooks and canvases by scientists at Shell, the oil company, in collaboration with the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency and curators at the Van Gogh Museum here, which owns the world’s largest collection of works by the Dutch post-impressionist. These questions are raised by a new analysis, eight years in the making, of hundreds of van Gogh’s canvases as well as his palette, pigments, letters and notebooks by scientists at Shell, the oil company, in collaboration with the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency and curators at the newly renovated Van Gogh Museum here, which owns the world’s largest collection of works by that Dutch Post Impressionist.
The results of that study will be revealed in an exhibition “Van Gogh at Work,” which opens May 1 and features about 200 paintings and drawings, 150 of them by van Gogh and others by contemporaries including Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard. The research did not lead to “earth-shattering new insights” that rewrite van Gogh’s life story, said the director of the Van Gogh Museum, Axel Rüger, but it could shift the understanding of van Gogh’s temperament and personality. The results of that study will be revealed in an exhibition, “Van Gogh at Work,” which opens on Wednesday and features about 200 paintings and drawings, 150 of them by van Gogh and others by contemporaries, including Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard.
“Van Gogh at Work,” which will inhabit all four floors of the museum’s gallery space until Jan. 12, goes on view as the museum reopens after a seven-month renovation that cost €21 million, or about $27.5 million. “You discover more clearly that van Gogh was a very methodical artist, which runs counter to the general myth that he was a manic, possibly slightly deranged man who just spontaneously threw paint at the canvas,” Mr. Rüger said. “He was actually someone who knew very well about the properties of the materials he used, how to use them, and also he created very deliberate compositions. In that sense it’s a major insight in that it gives us a better notion of van Gogh the artist. He was very goal-oriented.”
The museum is on Amsterdam’s sprawling, grassy Museumplein, alongside the modern and contemporary Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, which completed its nine-year expansion and renovation in September, and the Rijksmuseum, the national trove of Golden Age masterpieces that reopened last month after an almost 10-year and €500 million renovation. By using an electron microscope and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, which reveals the parts of pigments without taking invasive samples, researchers found that early on van Gogh used perspective frames as a guide and drew on the canvas to correctly render proportions and depth of field in his landscapes. Later, as he gained mastery, he abandoned these grids. Like many artists, he reworked certain paintings repeatedly to perfect his desired effect. The most important insight was into his palette, said Nienke Bakker, curator of the show.
“It’s great that we are now for the first time in 10 years on the museum square with all museums fully open in their full glory, and of course the Concertgebouw as well,” said the director of the Van Gogh Museum, Axel Rüger. “That is four world-class institutions, and three world-class museums, where you can experience art from the Middle Ages up to today within a few minutes walking distance. It will put Amsterdam back on the map as a major destination for arts and culture.” “We now know much more about the pigments van Gogh used and how they might’ve changed color over time,” Ms. Bakker said. “That’s crucial to our understanding of his works, and to know better how to treat them. The colors are still very vibrant, but they would have been even brighter — especially the reds. Some of the reds were much brighter or have completely disappeared since he painted them.”
The Van Gogh Museum’s renovation was minor compared with those of the other two. It had to bring fire safety equipment up to code and update the security and climate systems. Visitors familiar with the museum will notice only a new lick of paint, a new restaurant interior, new ceilings and better lighting, Mr. Rüger said. Ralph Haswell, principal scientist at Shell Global Solutions here, which made its lab facilities and researchers available to the museum, said that at the turn of the 20th century artists had just started buying pigments off the shelf rather than mixing them in the studio. “One of the disadvantages of living in a very changing environment where pigments were very new was that they didn’t always know how things would turn out,” he said. “The chemical industry was growing hugely and they came up with all kinds of colors, but you never knew how long they would remain stable. Some pigments weren’t stable.” That was the case with van Gogh’s violet, used to depict the walls of his room in Arles. Because the red in the purple paint faded prematurely, probably even during van Gogh’s lifetime, it left behind only the blue with which it had been mixed.
This “jubilee exhibition” features the most famous works of the Van Gogh Museum’s permanent collection alongside loans from institutions around the world. Among them are van Gogh’s only known extant palette and his three surviving tubes of paint, borrowed from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. It also brings together two of his five “Sunflower” paintings — one from its own collection and one from the National Gallery in London — to hang, as the artist intended, on either side of his 1889 “Portrait of Augustine Roulin, ‘La Berceuse.”’ That may have been fine with van Gogh, Ms. Bakker said, since the largely self-taught artist didn’t regard any of his work as final. He saw pieces as studies that helped him find his style.
The eight-year research project did not lead to “earth-shattering new insights” that rewrite van Gogh’s life story, Mr. Rüger said, but it could shift the popular understanding of van Gogh’s working process and personality. “He wanted to express his individual way of seeing the world, and every work of art he made was moving him toward that goal,” Ms. Bakker said, “but he was never satisfied.”
“You discover more clearly that van Gogh was a very methodical artist, which runs counter to the general myth that he was a manic, possibly slightly deranged man who just spontaneously threw paint at the canvas,” Mr. Rüger said. “He was actually someone who knew very well about the properties of the materials he used, how to use them, and also he created very deliberate compositions. In that sense, it’s a major insight in that it gives us a better notion of van Gogh the artist. He was very goal-oriented.” The original hue — seemingly a minor change — presents a more soothing image, said Marije Vellekoop, head of collections, research and presentation for the Van Gogh Museum. The purple and yellow are “not a harsh contrast as we think of now,” she said. “That was something he wanted to express in that picture — tranquillity and a sense of rest.”
For example, researchers found that early on, van Gogh drew perspectival frames directly onto his canvases to make sure that he was getting the angles in his landscapes right; he abandoned these later when he mastered perspective. He reworked certain paintings repeatedly to perfect his desired effect. He also constantly explored ways to manipulate pigments, working sand or blades of grass into his paints to thicken them, and sometimes using thinning agents. In color theory, Ms. Vellekoop said, purple and yellow are complementary contrasts. “Theoretically they have to reinforce each other,” she said. “For me, the purple walls in the bedroom make it a softer image. It confirms that he was sticking to the traditional color theory, using purple and yellow, and not blue and yellow.”
Nienke Bakker, the curator of “Van Gogh at Work,” said one of the most important findings of the research was a better insight into the artist’s palette. In other paintings the disappearance of the reds had different consequences. For example, in images of blossoming fruit trees,  blossoms are now white that were once pink because the red faded away. That might lead to changing the identification of the type of tree depicted, Ms. Vellekoop said.
“We now know much more about the pigments van Gogh used and how they might’ve changed color over time,” Ms. Bakker said. “That’s crucial to our understanding of his works, and to know better how to treat them. The colors are still very vibrant but they would have been even brighter — especially the reds. Some of the reds were much brighter or have completely disappeared since he painted them. So the image of the work has changed over time.” In a way, his use of complementary colors places van Gogh strictly in the traditions of his time. Although he was radical in his use of bright colors, she said, “he follows the traditional color theory that was already written down in the first half of the 19th century,” she said, adding, “A lot of his artist friends were reading those books,” but didn’t use the pigments so boldly.
Ralph Haswell, principle scientist at Shell Global Solutions — Royal Dutch Shell, which has its headquarters in The Hague, has a large research and development component, and it has made its lab facilities and researchers available to the museum — said that at the turn of the 19th century, artists were just starting to work with pigments they could buy off the shelf, rather than having to mix them in the studio. “One of the disadvantages of living in a very changing environment where pigments were very new was that they didn’t always know how things would turn out,” he said. “The chemical industry was growing hugely and they came up with all kinds of colors, but you never knew how long they would remain stable. Some pigments weren’t stable, so they would lose their color with time.” Van Gogh experimented with different techniques to applying color that were used by his contemporaries, including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who thinned out his paints and used flat colors. Van Gogh also briefly followed the Pointillists, whose images were built up from many dabs of color. The high-contrast colors of van Gogh’s later paintings are associated with the moment when he came into his own as an artist, developing his own style, in the last couple of years of his life.
That was the case with van Gogh’s violet, the one he used to depict the walls of his room in Arles. Because the red in the purple paint faded prematurely — probably even during van Gogh’s lifetime — it left behind only the blue with which it was mixed. The fact that he may have used an even brighter palette, with more reds and purples, indicates that his work may have been closer to that of his friend Paul Gauguin. In that sense, his color choices might have been safer and less iconoclastic than we might imagine.
That may have been all right with van Gogh, Ms. Bakker said, since the largely self-taught artist didn’t regard any of his work as “final.” He saw them as studies that helped him find his style. But, she said, the new color insights don’t necessarily change our view of his psychology. “I don’t think it says anything about his state of mind,” she said. “In Arles, he was using a lot of colors and he was very optimistic about life and his future and his possibilities of selling his work.”
“He wanted to express his individual way of seeing the world and every work of art he made was moving him toward that goal,” Ms. Bakker said, “but he was never satisfied. He was always learning and improving and seeing the next step ahead. He was very self-critical.” He was also looking forward to Gauguin’s coming to Arles, Ms. Vellekoop said, but he was almost manic about it. “When the cooperation with Gauguin failed, and he was in the asylum, and he becomes more somber and depressed, his colors changed, he goes more towards the ochers, different shades of green and browns,” she said. “A more subdued palette. We do associate color with his state of mind, of course, but it’s not like the more blue, the more depressed he was.”
Those insights come out of a number of studies of van Gogh’s tools, re-readings of his writings and an analysis of his paints. Shell’s contribution to the project was to study the component parts of van Gogh’s pigments, using an electron microscope and a technique called x-ray fluorescence spectometry, which allows scientists to discover the component parts of pigments without taking invasive paint samples from the work. Starting in September two of van Gogh’s renditions of “The Bedroom” will be displayed side by side at the exhibition, one from the Van Gogh Museum and the other borrowed from the Art Institute of Chicago. Van Gogh painted three versions of the room in 1888 and 1889, and all now have those pale-blue walls. Scientists and conservators have also created a digital reconstruction of what the painting might have looked like when van Gogh first painted it, with those violet walls, which will also be part of the exhibition.
Starting in September, two of van Gogh’s renditions of “The Bedroom” will be displayed side by side; one is from the Van Gogh Museum and one is being borrowed from the Art Institute of Chicago. Van Gogh painted three versions of the room in 1888, and all now have those pale blue walls. Scientists and conservators have also created a digital reconstruction of what the painting might have looked like when van Gogh first painted it, with those violet walls, which will also be part of the exhibition. “It looks just, different, and a bit strange,” Ms. Bakker said.
“It looks just, different, and a bit strange,” Ms. Bakker said. But would it have been more beautiful with purple walls? “It’s hard to say with the knowledge we have and the image that you never can get out of your head again.” She thought about it. “It’s also nice with the more violet walls,” she conceded.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

The top floor of the exhibition features work from the last year of van Gogh's life, 1890. He spent May through July of that year in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, where he painted 13 landscapes, including “Daubigny’s Garden,” which some think may have been his last work. Correction: April 29, 2013
On July 23, van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo: “Perhaps you will take a look at this sketch of Daubigny’s garden — it is one of my most carefully thought-out canvases.” Four days later, he died from a gunshot wound, either by his own hand or, as advanced in a recent theory, by two boys with a malfunctioning gun. The Van Gogh Museum has long maintained that suicide was the cause.

An earlier version of this article indicated that all three versions of the painting “The Bedroom” were created in 1888. They were created in 1888 and 1889. That version also referred to pigments available for sale at the turn of the 19th century. The became available around the turn of the 20th century.

Although his career was a short one, Van Gogh had a strong vision of how he wanted his paintings shown.
“He wanted to create a kind of oeuvre, not individual works but really things that could be shown together and tell a certain story or contrast with each other or reinforce one another,” Ms. Bakker said. “He clearly felt he wasn’t there yet. He was getting there but he was never there yet.”