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Scientists digitally reconstruct :
Renoir portrait
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A visualisation of the painting in its original appearance
(left) and the original Madam Leon Clapisson (1883) |
Scientists have made a digital reconstruction of a Renoir portrait
with its original colours as they would have looked to the artist when
he finished the painting in 1883, before the red pigment he used had
faded due to its sensitivity to light.
The original portrait of Madame Leon Clapisson has faded
significantly over the past 130 years but the original colour of the
reddish background had been preserved under the frame of the painting,
said Richard Van Duyne of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ilinois.
Using a technique called ramen spectroscopy, Dr Van Duyne analysed
the molecular make-up of the pigments used in the painting and made
comparisons between the exposed and unexposed parts of the portrait to
make a full-sized digital reconstruction.
“It makes good sense to understand what the original colour was
rather than to change the artist’s hand,” Dr Van Duyne told the American
Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.
The analysis showed that Renoir used a brilliant pigment called
carmine lake, which is composed of organic molecules and is extremely
sensitive to light. The analysis is one of several on the chemical
make-up of artworks, including one showing that Picasso used ordinary
house paint in some of his paintings.
- The Independent
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