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It would be very cool to learn that Van Gogh did this on purpose (though that seems unlikely). From the article: "Van Gogh, as did his contemporaries, used sev

It would be very cool to learn that Van Gogh did this on purpose (though that seems unlikely). From the article: "Van Gogh, as did his contemporaries, used several pigments that discolour over time" I wonder if the artists were aware that this would happen but had no alternatives?

jdietrich 8y ago
Pigment durability was reasonably well understood. Oil paints are much more lightfast than watercolors, because the oil medium offers some protection from UV. Varnishes added another layer of protection. When applied as watercolor or gouache, many pigments will visibly fade in a matter of days if exposed to direct sunlight. Lightfastness was a major motivation for pigment research, especially in exterior applications like signwriting. Even today, many artists pay little attention to the lightfastness of pigments, despite most manufacturers providing extensive information on lightfastness. The great watercolorist J.M.W. Turner was notorious for using pigments that were known to have poor lightfastness; many of his watercolors were severely faded within his lifetime. The relative lightfastness of oil paints may have lulled some artists into a false sense of security. The latter half of the 19th century saw a huge increase in the number of available pigments due to advances in synthetic chemistry. Cadmium yellow was starting to replace the less durable chromium yellow, but it remained relatively expensive and was used infrequently by an artist as impoverished as Van Gogh. The chemistry of these new pigments was not fully understood, so some lightfast pigments used at that time have degraded due to chemical reactions with additives and impurities in the oil paint medium or varnish.
- daemin 8y ago
  Even though a part of me wants to store everything (like Art) in exact detail when it was originally made, I'm building a certain appreciation for just letting things diminish and atrophy. Not needing to fix everything to be exactly how it was like brand new.

jdietrich 8y ago

Pigment durability was reasonably well understood. Oil paints are much more lightfast than watercolors, because the oil medium offers some protection from UV. Varnishes added another layer of protection. When applied as watercolor or gouache, many pigments will visibly fade in a matter of days if exposed to direct sunlight. Lightfastness was a major motivation for pigment research, especially in exterior applications like signwriting. Even today, many artists pay little attention to the lightfastness of pigments, despite most manufacturers providing extensive information on lightfastness. The great watercolorist J.M.W. Turner was notorious for using pigments that were known to have poor lightfastness; many of his watercolors were severely faded within his lifetime. The relative lightfastness of oil paints may have lulled some artists into a false sense of security. The latter half of the 19th century saw a huge increase in the number of available pigments due to advances in synthetic chemistry. Cadmium yellow was starting to replace the less durable chromium yellow, but it remained relatively expensive and was used infrequently by an artist as impoverished as Van Gogh. The chemistry of these new pigments was not fully understood, so some lightfast pigments used at that time have degraded due to chemical reactions with additives and impurities in the oil paint medium or varnish.

daemin 8y ago
Even though a part of me wants to store everything (like Art) in exact detail when it was originally made, I'm building a certain appreciation for just letting things diminish and atrophy. Not needing to fix everything to be exactly how it was like brand new.