An Artificial Intelligence Has Revealed A Van Gogh Masterpiece That Was Hidden Under Another Canvas

Anicet Mbida 06:54, September 08, 2022

It is said that one painting can often hide another.

It has never been so true.

An artificial intelligence has just revealed a Van Gogh masterpiece that was hidden under another canvas.

You should know that many artists have taken to repainting over existing paintings.

Either because they didn't like what they had produced, or because they couldn't afford new canvases.

This is the case of Vincent Van Gogh who did not experience success until well after his death.

And that's what experts discovered while trying to authenticate one of his still lifes with X-rays. They realized that underneath, there was like a draft of another painting.

We clearly distinguished the silhouettes of two characters fighting.

Now it so happens that in a letter, Van Gogh told his brother that he had painted two bare-chested wrestlers, and that he was quite proud of it.

So it was this famous painting that was hidden behind it?

Exactly.

So we wanted to know what it could have looked like.

Researchers at University College London therefore began by virtually cleaning up the different layers of the still life.

Then they analyzed hundreds and hundreds of Van Gogh's works with artificial intelligence techniques.

This made it possible to understand all the subtleties of his style, and to create a program capable of reconstructing the hidden painting.

The result is stunning.

Looks like an original work.

Even the texture of the painting could be reproduced using a 3D printer.

If you want to admire it, it is exhibited at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris and online at the Oxia Palus gallery.

Why go through computers and not through human experts?

To avoid subjectivity!

If you ask 10 painters to do the same exercise, you will get 10 different results.

Because everyone will end up adding their own touch.

While the algorithm remains cold and implacable.

Paradoxically, it is more likely to arrive at a more faithful result.

In any case, even if the result is stunning, even if it rediscovers a totally lost painting, it is impossible to know how close we are to the original.

It remains, neither more nor less, than an interpretation.