AkzoNobel recreates Van Gogh painting

AkzoNobel experts have used vehicle refinish colour-matching technology to help with the digital recreation of Van Gogh’s painting Field with Irises near Arles.

It’s the closest anyone has come to reconstructing the original colour scheme used by the artist when he first made the painting.

By adopting a fusion of modern technology and classic painting techniques, it has been possible to carry out a full digital colour recreation of Field with Irises near Arles. Because modern conservation ethics won’t allow new colour to be added, a digital version was the only way to recreate the original painting. This was done using AkzoNobel’s vehicle refinishes digital colour tools Automatchic Vision and MIXIT.

Researchers analysed the digital images of the painting to reveal the original colours used by the artist. After hundreds of hours of work, they’ve finished matching Van Gogh’s original palette to produce a more truthful digital colour recreation.

‘As global experts in colour and a world leader in digital colour matching, we know how much colour matters,’ said AkzoNobel CEO Thierry Vanlancker. ‘We pride ourselves on our ability to deliver consistently accurate paints and coatings that provide lasting colour performance, so we’re very pleased to have partnered with the Van Gogh Museum to digitally recreate a Van Gogh masterpiece.’

Attention to detail has been rigorous throughout the project. It began with the company’s colour experts studying digital images to determine the pigment composition of the original – using data supplied by the National Gallery in Washington.