Unique Discovery by Experts about the Painting “Olive Trees” Has Enthralled Art Lovers.
For art enthusiasts, the name Vincent Van Gogh is likely not unfamiliar. With countless famous paintings and a distinctive painting style, the works created by this Dutch artist continue to hold immense value, both artistically and commercially, even today.
To study the painting style and context of Van Gogh’s work, Mary Schafer, a curator at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Missouri, began her research on one of Van Gogh’s paintings. This particular piece was painted around 1889, during a time when he was suffering from illness and emotional turmoil, yet it is still regarded as one of his greatest works.
The famous painting “Olive Trees” by artist Vincent Van Gogh. (Photo: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art)
In 2017, after Mary Schafer magnified the painting hundreds of times using a surgical microscope, she unexpectedly discovered a secret that had been hidden in the artwork for 128 years.
Sharing with Live Science, the curator stated: “I came across something. At first, I thought it was a small leaf. But then I discovered it was actually an insect.”
Upon closer examination, Mary revealed that it was actually the remains of a small grasshopper. Researchers already knew that Van Gogh particularly enjoyed painting outdoors, making it easy to understand how an insect might have wandered into his creative space.
The microscope shows a part of the grasshopper’s remains. (Photo: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art)
Upon discovering this intriguing fact, Mary reached out to Michael Engel, a professor of paleontology at the University of Kansas and a collaborator at the American Museum of Natural History, to see what he could deduce from her discovery, such as the season the painting was created or the context in which the artist worked on it.
However, according to the paleontologist, the remains of the insect show no signs of struggle to escape the sticky paint. Mary suspects that the dead grasshopper was on Van Gogh’s paintbrush when he pressed it onto the canvas of “Olive Trees”, leaving this notable mark.
Regarding this discovery, Mary stated that while it may not hold significant academic importance, she is delighted that it has attracted public interest. She mentioned that many museum visitors were crowding to stand close to observe the painting and trying to spot the remnants of the grasshopper within it.
