how did we ALL miss this for 130 years?
The Dark Detail
664,252 views
For over 130 years, we’ve been looking at Vincent van Gogh’s most famous bedroom—and getting every single color wrong.
In this video, we dive into the chemical mystery hidden within "The Bedroom in Arles." While millions of people have stood before this masterpiece in museums across Chicago, Amsterdam, and Paris, a slow-moving chemical reaction was quietly erasing Van Gogh’s original vision. By analyzing his personal letters to his brother Theo and using advanced atomic imaging, scientists have finally uncovered the true colors he intended to use to create a sense of "absolute repose."
We explore:
The specific pigments Van Gogh chose (Geranium Lake and Cochineal Lake) and why they acted like a "slow fuse."
How the shifting of violet walls to blue and red floors to brown broke the emotional system he carefully engineered.
The digital reconstructions that reveal what the room actually looked like in October 1888.
Van Gogh once said "the colors have to do the job here." After a century of fading, we’re finally seeing the job he actually wanted them to do.
20 Comments
I knew he had vascular dementia when he told me he didn't like Van Gogh anymore.
It's hard to tell when someone very close to you is mentally sick...But this was the definitive moment for me.
When I was teaching art, I encouraged students to watch a video by the Golden paint company in Oregon. They basically explained painter's colors as being in 3 distinct eras- up through the Renaissance there were less colors available, and painters depended more on value (lights and darks.) During the Industrial Revolution, many new colors were developed- a lot of these were from metals, like the cadmium colors. They are bright, heavy, opaque, and many were toxic.
From the 1960s onward, modern colors were developed that had extreme tinting strength, were more transparent, and were very intense color wise.
Van Gogh was painting during the era of the Industrial Revolution. Some of those colors, which were new at the time, were found after the passage of years to be fugitive. However, the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist movements were made possible by those new and exciting colors.
I don't know if the Golden video is still available, but I recommend it if it is.
Which one are you referring to ?
And which one does the letter you quote refer to ?
First Version Vincent painted in October 1888, this version is housed at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
He painted this original version after moving into his home on Place Lamartine. It was later damaged by water during a flood.
Second Version September 1, 1889, is housed at the Art Institute of Chicago. He painted this exact-size copy while recovering at the asylum in Saint-Rémy.
The Third Version September 9, 1889, is in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
This is a smaller reduction that he created as a gift for his mother and sister in Holland.
It was destroyed during WW II.
Vincent lived a life of chaos and had a hard time finding peace.
And most could simply say it was his own doing or he had some issues or problem he was causing himself.
When in actuality he was fighting the problem itself.
Because no matter what he did to find peace there was some unseen force which took it away or challenged it not only within him but all around him and in the very work he did and in every attempt he made to avoid or discouraged that peace.
But also the way he passed away was said to have been from protecting a young child who had accidentally shot him.
Which once again shows his misfortune and how even in his last moments everything he did was misunderstood.
But at the same time, that one last choice may or not have been the thing which beat his misfortune??
The thing which he did which redeemed all things and put them back in balanced.
Which was giving his life to spare another.
The greatest gift any human can offer.
RIP Vincent!!
how did we ALL miss this for 130 years?
The Dark Detail
664,252 views
For over 130 years, we’ve been looking at Vincent van Gogh’s most famous bedroom—and getting every single color wrong.
In this video, we dive into the chemical mystery hidden within "The Bedroom in Arles." While millions of people have stood before this masterpiece in museums across Chicago, Amsterdam, and Paris, a slow-moving chemical reaction was quietly erasing Van Gogh’s original vision. By analyzing his personal letters to his brother Theo and using advanced atomic imaging, scientists have finally uncovered the true colors he intended to use to create a sense of "absolute repose."
We explore:
The specific pigments Van Gogh chose (Geranium Lake and Cochineal Lake) and why they acted like a "slow fuse."
How the shifting of violet walls to blue and red floors to brown broke the emotional system he carefully engineered.
The digital reconstructions that reveal what the room actually looked like in October 1888.
Van Gogh once said "the colors have to do the job here." After a century of fading, we’re finally seeing the job he actually wanted them to do.