A comparative study of Vincent van Gogh ’ s Bedroom series

Recent plans to clean and restore Vincent van Gogh’s painting of his Bedroom in Arles (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam) sparked off a broad collaborative campaign of investigations to compare the materials and techniques used in all three painted versions of this theme, including the Bedroom pictures now in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The features considered in this paper include picture format and composition, the preliminary sketch, colour scheme and pigments used, paint handling and condition of the works, all related to relevant passages in the artist’s letters. Findings help to substantiate chronological sequence, as well as providing insight into the broader question of how Van Gogh’s ideas and working methods evolved in the process of making serial repetitions or copies of his own works.