Revealing Gauguin’s practice: multi-analytical approach of the Portrait de Suzanne Bambridge

Abstract

The Portrait de Suzanne Bambridge (1891) is the first oil painting executed by Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) in Tahiti. A comprehensive material study of the painting by means of MA-XRF, Raman and FT-IR techniques has been conducted to understand Gauguin’s practice. The obtained results allowed collecting unexpected material evidences, which suggest restoration and subsequent addition made by Gauguin himself. Moreover relevant compositional information has been provided that has influenced the decision-making process during the restoration of the painting as the removal of the old varnish and the overpaints, dating from undocumented past treatments, turned out to be much more complicated than expected. While X-ray radiography and multi-spectral imaging methods could not give sufficient information, overpaints and original paint layers have been distinguished through this multi-analytical approach.