Preserving Van Gogh’s heritage with state-of-the-art tools

Light is a powerful tool. While ASML’s chipmaking machines harness light to power the world’s electronics industry, Vincent van Gogh was more than aware of its adverse effects, causing paintings to “fade like flowers,” according to a letter to his brother and benefactor, Theo van Gogh, in 1889.

 

Yet, without light, we cannot appreciate Van Gogh’s genius, as Kees van den Meiracker, head of collection management and restoration at the Van Gogh Museum, explained: “Due to his vivid use of color and layering of paint, Van Gogh’s works can be very sensitive to light and specific pigments susceptible to color fading and their paints cracking. But we cannot reduce our light levels in the museums any further or people will not be able to truly appreciate Van Gogh’s work.”

 

This light trade-off puts art conservators in a difficult position. The right balance between the preservation and display of these important works of art must be found, according to Maria Barkelid, the Van Gogh project lead at ASML. “We want to monitor these paintings to understand the mechanisms behind detrimental physical and chemical changes they undergo, trying to slow these effects down while making them as available as possible to inspire the next generation.”

 

In partnership with the Van Gogh Museum, the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) and the University of Amsterdam, ASML is striving to develop two state-of-the-art tools to measure and monitor the health of Van Gogh’s paintings and the causes behind color fading, paint cracking, and other significant environmental effects.

 

“Thanks to ASML’s innovative approach and level of expertise, we have the opportunity to achieve the speed and accuracy such tools demand,” explained Alessa Gambardella, research scientist and project lead at the Van Gogh Museum. “Working together, we also hope to ensure the long-term use of these instruments, where the hardware, software, and resultant data can be used in the years to come to continue to monitor these works of art and protect them for future generations.”