The Blute-fin Mill

 

Photo Credit: Chamber Art

The truth has been revealed. The painting The Blute-fin Mill has been cleared as an original Vincent van Gogh painting. Doubts arose about the origin of the painting because of the reputation of its finder, Dirk Hannema. The painting was painted in 1886 and features a large number of people gathered around the Moulin Blute-fin on Montmartre.

Dirk Hannema was the director of the Hannema-De Stuers Foundation in Heino, Netherlands when he discovered the painting in 1975. He claimed the painting was a Van Gogh but since his reputation was in question, the painting did not receive full recognition as a Van Gogh. Hannema in 1938 was the director of the Musem Boijmans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam where he gained his notorious reputation. Hannema’s name went through the mud when it was discovered he was one of the head honchos who had accepted Han van Meergeren’s Christ at Emmaus as a Johannes Vermeer original painting. His name never recovered from the incident and his reputation, as an art connoisseur, was finished. In Heino, he still acted as an art connoisseur but his muddy trail could not be washed away, and he still had a nasty habit of incorrectly attributed pieces of work to art masters. Because of this, his claim that The Blute-fin Mill was a Van Gogh was not believed even though it has be proven now that Hannema’s attribution was correct.

The Van Gogh Museum conducted a study on the work and stylistically and technically examined it. They published their results in the June issue of The Burlington Magazine. Their results follows Hannema’s in that they compared the painting to Van Gough’s Guinguette, which resides in the Museé d’Orsay, and noticed the very close similarities. Both painting exhibit almost identical brushwork and both paintings feature a great number of people. They did this same cross-examination with Van Gogh’s Bois de Boulogne with People Walking and concluded with the same results. The only differences were that the number of people in The Blute-fin Mill was a very high quantity compared to the other and were rather detailed. Van Gogh must have been experimenting with a new style, but since the painting is not signed, it must not have been entirely to his liking.

When compared to other Van Gogh paintings, the date of The Blute-fin Mill was painted in autumn of 1886. There was an art historical argument over the dating of the painting when compared to other works of his of the Mill at the time. There was a question involving the staircases since in Van Gogh’s early sketches and other works of the Mill, his staircases were not as broad as the staircases in the painting. It was concluded that his sketches and other works of the Mill were facing different directions, which cleared up the confusion. Also, any other dates were awkward correlations with his style of painting at the time.

If there were any other doubts, the in-depth technical examination conducted should eliminate them. The pigments that were examined using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive Electroscopy were identified as pigments used by Van Gogh in autumn in 1886. Also, the painting exhibits a stamp of the Paris art supplies dealer Rey et Perrod, which is similar to at least another work of art by Van Gogh. A computerized thread count was also done to examine the canvas, which revealed some interesting results. The infra red reflectography in the computerized thread count revealed that the patterns found in the painting was the style of Van Gogh’s Paris work. It found the typical lines of an anticipated frame on the canvas that Van Gogh drew before he started to paint.

The Blute-fin Mill is definitely not in a standout in Van Gogh’s work like Starry Night or Sunflowers. But something can be said for the painting. Van Gogh aspired to be a painter of people and this piece of art is a testimonial to his efforts in the endeavor in his Paris phase.





Works Cited

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Photo: http://chamberart.net/view.php?id=55173