Ravine

Ravine, October 1889.

X-ray of Ravine showing the first painting beneath.

Wild Vegetation, the pen and ink drawing that corresponds to the painting beneath Ravine.

The Museum of Fine Arts here in Boston (which owns this lovely Vincent piece), in conjunction with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, discovered upon x-raying the MFA's Van Gogh holdings at the request of a group of scholars studying the technical aspects of Vincent's works, that there is, in fact, another of Vincent's paintings lying beneath the surface of Ravine.

It is believed that the first painting underneath was painted in June of 1889 during the early part of Vincent's stay at the Saint-Paul de Mausole Asylum near Saint-Rémy, and he then reused the support for "Ravine" when he was without any fresh canvases a few months later in October of 1889. The x-ray showed that the first painting matches up perfectly with a small drawing titled "Wild Vegetation" that Vincent sent in a letter to Theo in July 1889. In fact, the Van Gogh Museum has a dozen drawings that Vincent sent to Theo in July of that year to show his brother what he had been painting that summer. Up until this discovery, there had never been a known painting that corresponded to that drawing and it was the only one of that group of drawings from that summer without a painting of it, which had always puzzled the Van Gogh scholars. But now this lost painting has been rediscovered.

How exciting that almost 120 years after Vincent's tragic death, new and exciting discoveries can be made about his work and his life. To me it's absolutely thrilling!

Photos courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.