Van Gogh Paintings Lost and Found
Australia Loses an Authentic Masterpiece Boston Gains an Artwork
"Head of a Man" not a Van Gogh, and "The Ravine" has an invisible Van Gogh hidden beneath its undulating surface. Australia loses a Van Gogh, Boston gains one, sort of..
Perhaps it is art karma that when one Van Gogh disappears from this world another reappears. This is exactly what has happened recently with the demotion of Australia’s “Head of a Man’ to just another work done by a contemporary of Van Gogh and the discovery of a new Van Gogh in Boston, Massachusetts.
The painting “Head of a Man” was purchased under unusual circumstances by the National Gallery of Victoria, in Australia in 1949. The painting was on loan from Rubert Murdoch’s father, Sir Keith Murdoch, a famous English journalist who sold it to the National Gallery in 1940 for several thousand dollars. (US) The painting by the Dutch master was said to have been worth perhaps over $30 million.
So what possessed the National Gallery to send the painting to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, for authentication? It wasn’t until 2006 when art experts started questioning the authenticity of this alleged Van Gogh portrait for three reasons. The first was because the style in which it is painted was not consistent with other works from a similar time period. Also the painting was not mentioned specifically in the prolific writings of Vincent Van Gogh himself, and the Head of a Man portrait is in a unique horizontal format. (All of Van Gogh’s known portraits have been painted in a vertical format.)
While the National Gallery of Victoria is no doubt mourning the loss of what they thought was a rare gem, it is good for their reputation as it is good for art scholars to have the truth revealed. The bottom line also is that while the Gallery has lost a bonafide Van Gogh, they now have a world famous fake Van Gogh with a great story. Nor does this detract from the value of the painting itself, which is quite masterful.
Meanwhile, in the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, Massachusetts, a curious curator found a Van Gogh painting underneath of another. For years, art scholars have wondered if a painting exists of a sketch in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Now Meta Chavannes has X-rayed the painting, “The Ravine", and found “Wild Vegetation” underneath it. While museum-goers will never get to see the painting (It is painted under another painting. To reveal the under painting, the over painting would have to be destroyed.)
It is common practice for painters to paint on top of old images usually for reasons of economy, or because the artist was not satisfied with the painting. Usually the substrata of canvas or wood is sanded and primed first to provide a better painting surface.
This Virtual Van Gogh will garnish a new interpretive label that may attract more visitors and educate art lovers and art appreciators about hidden treasures in the museum’s collection.
