"Undergrowth with Two Figures" by Vincent van Gogh, 1890
Vincent van Gogh’s “Undergrowth with Two Figures” at the Cincinnati Art Museum appears to most museum visitors as a beautiful post-Impressionist painting that is excellently preserved.
The canvas wall art was created by van Gogh in 1890 and after over a century, the painting still pops out of the canvas.
The scene depicts a man and woman walking through a green, yellow and white forest with grayish blue tree trunks. The van Gogh landscape painting was voted as a No. 1 favorite among the museum’s 60,000-piece collection in the museum’s 2006 People’s Art Poll.
The painting is worth tens of thousands of dollars as with other van Gogh artworks sold on auction. The artist painted the “Undergrowth with Two Figures” a month before he took his own life.
Although the painting appears perfect, most visitors to the museum are not aware of unintentional damage done by conservation efforts in the mid-70′s, according to the museum’s chief conservator, Per Knutas.
Now, people are aware of it since Knutas is seen repairing the damage at the Cincinnati Wing of the Museum. The current restoration efforts were supposed to lengthen the painting’s lifespan and is being prepared for a loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2012.
The museum has displayed other conservation efforts before, but this is the first time that the museum is using a powerful microscope to restore the artwork. The microscope is similar to the ones used for surgical procedures.
The microscope is connected to a 42 inch flat screen TV that hangs on a wall behind Knutas so that visitors can see the painstaking conservation work. The restoration of van Gogh’s canvas wall art is expected to last till July.
Reproduction of the "Bedroom at Arles" by Vincent van Gogh at EverythingWallArt.com
The damage produced by previous conservations efforts have dulled the vibrant colors that van Gogh is known for. Knutas is working to remove wax that was previously used to prevent the artwork from deteriorating. The wax penetrated the back of the canvas wall art and caused the paint to discolor.
Knutas, a Swedish conservator, was trained in Denmark and worked at the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art previous to working for the Cincinnati Museum.
The video below shows Knutas repairing the surface of the masterpiece and removing the wax layer that penetrated the painting from behind the canvas:
