Newsademic British English edition 260

part o f his own ear.
How the second version o f van Gogh’s ‘Bedroom
in A rles’ m ay have looked (Art Institute o f Chicago)
Van Gogh painted the three pic­
tures o f his bedroom in Arles be­
tween 1888 and 1889. The first was 
painted before he cut his ear. The
second was completed after he had 
attacked him self and spent time in 
hospital. This is the painting that 
the Chicago museum owns. Today, 
all the paintings look very similar. 
However, the Chicago museum sus­
pected that the colours o f its painting 
had faded.
Museum officials analysed the 
picture using a special type o f X- 
ray equipment. They discovered 
that many o f the painting’s col­
ours used to be much darker. For 
example, the walls and door now 
look blue. Yet van Gogh painted 
them in a purple colour. Hundreds 
o f years ago artists usually made 
their own paints. The first ‘manu­
factured’ paint in squeezable tubes 
was produced in the 1840s. This 
meant it was easy for artists to buy 
the paints they needed. As he had 
little money, van Gogh normally 
bought the least expensive paint. 
He wrote about buying cheap 
paints in a letter he sent to Theo. 
Over time, these paints were more 
likely to fade.
The 
museum 
officials 
sus­
pect that van Gogh used darker 
colours in the second painting 
because o f his state o f mind. 
They have created a copy o f the 
picture as van Gogh may have 
painted it. This picture is a part 
o f the museum ’s exhibition.
Van Gogh continued to suffer 
from mental problems. In 1890, 
he went to a field and shot him self 
in the chest. The artist died a few 
days later, aged 37. □

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