"Red Vineyards in Arles. Montmajour". Research and conservation project of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts A.S. Pushkin Automatic translate

The Pushkin Museum, with the support of LG SIGNATURE, has completed a project to study and preserve the world famous painting by Vincent van Gogh “Red Vineyards in Arles. Montmajour ". The research results made it possible to reconstruct the stages of the artist’s work on the canvas, to understand the technology of its creation, and also to identify destructive processes that affect the state of preservation of the work. The stages of studying the painting can be followed on the project website, where a series of videos "The Restorer’s Diary" and "Dialogues on the Creative Path and the Work of Van Gogh" will be published.

Painting “Red Vineyards in Arles. Montmajour "has always been under the close scrutiny of specialists from the Pushkin Museum, however, it has never been studied in such detail before. For the first time, large-scale complex technical and technological studies of the work were carried out, in which specialists studied the morphological features of the canvas, the set and degree of damage to the fibers of the thread, performed an X-ray fluorescence analysis of the surface of the paint layer, determined the chemical composition of the soil and paint layer and the composition of microsamples of wax-resin mastic and yellowed sturgeon glue.

The research was carried out with the participation of specialists from the Department of Higher Plants, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University. MV Lomonosov, State Research Institute of Restoration and Research Laboratory of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

The work on the restoration of the frame included both preventive measures, such as strengthening the soil and gilding, removing persistent surface stains, and aesthetic ones - correcting darkened tints, replenishing lost fragments of carved decor, loss of soil and gilding, tinting and varnishing.

In the process of preserving the painting, the areas with the threat of paint layer scattering were strengthened, and the old, darkened restoration glue was removed from the surface of the canvas.

Thanks to the carried out technical and technological research, as well as restoration and conservation work, the state of preservation of the work has stabilized. The museum specialists managed to stop the slow destruction of the painting, determine its root causes, fortify dangerous places and prevent possible risks. The elimination of traces of the previous restoration improved the aesthetic qualities of the work. Completed conservation and new information about the painting will allow it to be exhibited without fear for the condition of the canvas and the paint layer, which will make it possible to show it at the exhibition “Brother Ivan. Collection of Ivan and Mikhail Morozov "(June 27 - October 30, 2022, Pushkin Museum).

The research and restoration processes of the painting will be presented in the four-part documentary "The Secret of the Red Vineyards", which is being produced by LG SIGNATURE. The first two series are already available on the IVI platform. The film was directed by Ivan Vdovin, winner of an award at the International Festival of Advertising Producers in Cannes (2018) and author of such documentary works as “Zakura”, “Who is Russia. Sakhalin ”,“ Fear and Awe ”. The multimedia project LG SIGNATURE fully complies with the tasks of the digital direction of the national project "Culture" and reflects the social mission of the project - to popularize art with the help of new technologies.

History reference

Painting by Vincent van Gogh “Red Vineyards in Arles. Montmajour "- one of the most important works in the artist’s work and the only work, the purchase of which during the life of the master is documented. This masterpiece is a witness to the artist’s drama and his attempts to overcome a crisis situation. Van Gogh created it in November 1888 in dialogue with his own memories during a creative partnership with Paul Gauguin, which turned into a tragedy. The painting accompanied the master in his wanderings around Arles before moving to the Saint-Remy hospital, and then was personally chosen by him for display at the exhibition of the Society of Twenty in Brussels, the last in the artist’s life. Here in January 1890 it was bought by the artist Anna Boch, who knew van Gogh personally. From her collection "Red Vineyards" in 1906 moved to the Parisian art market.In 1909, it was acquired by the Moscow collector Ivan Morozov. Since 1918, this work has become part of the collection of the State Museum of New Western Art. In the collection of the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin’s painting has been in existence since 1948, here in 1951 it underwent a thorough restoration. Since that time, she practically did not leave the walls of the museum. Today it is one of the central pieces of art in the gallery of 19th-20th century European and American art.Today it is one of the central pieces of art in the gallery of 19th-20th century European and American art.Today it is one of the central pieces of art in the gallery of 19th-20th century European and American art.