In preparation for a new exhibition of paintings by van Gogh and his contemporaries, Vincent van Gogh at Work , new color analyses of hundreds of his paintings, drawings, and notebooks have revealed that he may have been more methodical and less “mad” than previously thought. In fact the director of the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam says the studies show him to be “goal-oriented”. This has mainly been argued through the color shift in the paint pigments he used, for example what now appear to be pale blue walls in The Bedroom of 1888 are thought to have been lavender when freshly painted, which would have evoked a more tranquil mood. Other scholars still believe that the colors he chose reflected his state of mind at various life stages.
Read the whole article in the NY Times here.