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Heritage Science
Fig. 3 | Heritage Science

Fig. 3

From: Analytical imaging studies of the migration of degraded orpiment, realgar, and emerald green pigments in historic paintings and related conservation issues

Fig. 3

Detail of the Interior of a Restaurant (1887) by Vincent van Gogh showing the lightened green paint (a) (photograph: Kröller-Müller Museum), light microscopic image of paint sample taken from a lightened green area, normal light (b) and UV (c); backscatter electron image (d), elemental maps of arsenic (e), copper (f), lead (g), zinc (h) and line scan revealing the carbon (red line), lead (blue line) and arsenic (black line) X-ray intensities (i). The paint sample consists of a lead white-containing ground (layer 1), a thin beige layer containing lead white and fine red and oranges pigments (layer 2), a purple layer with lead white, zinc white, red lake with Al-substrate, cerulean blue, emerald green, barium sulfate and fine yellow, orange and red pigment (layer 3), a green paint layer (layer 4) composed of emerald green, lead white, a little zinc white and a few yellow, orange and blue particles. Note: the paint sample was not taken from the lightened green paint shown in a, but from a comparable brush stroke in the painting

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