The Van Gogh Code

Last week the Boston Globe reported that a discovery had been made at the MFA. They had a Vincent van Gogh painting in their possession that they never knew about. Unfortunately it wasn't just sitting around in the basement or tucked in a closet it was literally buried underneath another painting in the museum. According to the report: " Now a conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts has discovered the lost painting, but museum goers will never be able to see it: The painting lies underneath another Van Gogh long on display at the MFA, the museum announced yesterday." Geoff Edgers updates the story on the Exhibitionist blog today, according to the MFA spokesperson "'Yes, a label has gone up (went up last week) which includes a summation of Meta's discovery, an image of the X-Ray and an image of the drawing "Wild Vegetation" from the Van Gogh Museum.'" Meta is Meta Chavannes, a conservation fellow at the MFA who x-rayed the known painting "The Ravine," part of the MFA collection, and discovered what appears to be the painting which corresponds to a drawing Van Gogh had sent to his brother in 1889 of "Wild Vegetation."

Van Gogh was living in an asylum when he painted both The Ravine and Wild Vegetation. It's no secret that the master painter was "unstable" during his lifetime (the dude cut off his own ear!) nor was it hidden that he painted many of his works on canvases that he'd already painted. Many artists throughout history have repainted canvases or flipped them over and painted the backside. Usually they've done it because they were living the artist life and didn't have the money for new canvas – apparently in the Wild Vegetation/The Ravine case Van Gogh simply was impatient and couldn't wait for his brother to send him new canvas to work with. "The Ravine" remains on display at the MFA and according to the Exhibitionist the label explaining the discovery has been placed next to the painting. A Gallery Talk is scheduled to be given by Meta Chavannes and Sabrina Abron about the discovery on September 5 (a Wednesday – so thanks to Citizen's Bank you'll get into the museum for free)

Image is of The Ravine - can't quite see Wild Vegetation through the oil, can you now?

Ravine, 1889
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch (worked in France), 1853–1890)
Conservation status: After treatment
Oil on canvas 52.1524
*Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bequest of Keith McLeod
*Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston