‘The Scream’ Is Fading. New Research Reveals Why.

An article appeared in the New York Times today that, for me, was quite enlightening. It addresses how many of the paintings have faded considerably since they were first freshly painted. “The colors of the late 19th century and early 20th century are fading especially rapidly because of changes that took place in paintmaking. 

It describes Edvard Munch’s 1910 version of “The Scream” stating “portions of the canvas that were a brilliant orangeish-yellow are now an ivory white.”

Not only were artists subjected to their art fading over time, while they were painting they dealt with horribly toxic and volatile chemicals that made up many of the colours they used.

To quote further from the article: ”Interestingly, van Gogh, among other artists, was aware of the pitfalls of the new pigments. “I’ve just checked — all the colours that Impressionism has made fashionable are unstable,” van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, in 1888, “all the more reason boldly to use them too raw, time will only soften them too much.” In a later letter, he wrote, “The paintings fade like flowers.”

You can read the entire article here: “The Scream” is Fading