Lost van Gogh painting validated via canvas weave

Left in an attic and missing for decades, the long-lost Vincent van Gogh painting - "Sunset at Montmajour" - was authenticated by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in September. After a two-year investigation, art historians and researchers identified the work with pinpoint precision, in part, thanks to a technique based on a canvas "weave-map" developed in a Cornell-initiated project. "Studying the paintings of van Gogh presents a wide range of engineering problems," said Rick Johnson, Cornell professor of engineering, who holds a Ph.D. in engineering with a Ph.D. minor in art history. He helped to develop computer algorithms to examine painting X-rays and to count and map the number of individual threads per centimeter in painting canvases. "Like other painters, van Gogh purchased canvas by the roll, and the 19th-century looms created unique canvas patterns, and these patterns really jump out at you from our color-coded weave maps." Louis van Tilborgh, Teio Meedendorp and Oda van Maanen, researchers at the Van Gogh Museum, confirmed "Sunset at Montmajour" based on evidence of van Gogh's style, technique, his personal letters, the provenance of his other works and the canvas weave.