Vincent van Gogh, “Olive Trees” (1889) (all images courtesy The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art).
There’s a grasshopper in the van Gogh. The artist didn’t intend to embed the critter in his canvas when he was painting olive groves in the south of France, but the insect is there, buried in a swirl of paint. For over a century, it went unnoticed in the finished work, “Olive Trees” (1889), now owned by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, but a recent study by the museum’s curators, conservators, and outside scientists has revealed its old, brown carcass. It’s a small but telling trace of van Gogh’s practice of painting outdoors, where conditions were often windy enough to send flies, dust, sand — and, apparently, crickets — blowing around the artist and his canvas.
Image taken through a microscope of the grasshopper embedded in the paint of “Olive Trees”.
You can read all about this at Hyperallergic.
Good paintings need nourishment.
Oh my, I just noticed what you see on the recent comments list is: ‘Vincent van Gogh’s Dead’ -- like that’s news or something. ;)
Caine @2, Eh? I see the full title. The usual excuse is “browser settings”, but in this case I’m having some trouble working out what setting(s) might cause truncation in that particular list (“Recent comments”).
On the other hand, with the font size / zoom I use, there is an amusing linebreak right after the “Dead”, so I am seeing the title in the that particular list on two lines, e.g.:
blf on Vincent van Gogh’s DeadGrasshopper.
Fascinating story. Oil is a pain in the nether reagions to keep clean.
Charly:
Yes, it is, which dampens my enthusiasm for using it, but maybe I shouldn’t be so concerned.
Caine, #2
He has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more I’ve noticed.
Yes, yes. Did you know about the grasshopper? I knew about the grasshopper, but I don’t think most people knew.
It is the deadeast grasshopper in the history of the world. This is the best grasshopper, and believe me, I know grasshoppers.