On the left: visible light photograph of “Paysage” by René Guiette, 1953; on the right: x-ray image of the same painting. SGS, Copyright, 2017.
SGS Art Services has contributed to the new television series, “The Sense of Beauty”. In the documentary, the company shows how state-of-the-art scientific analysis is now being used to protect artworks, identify paintings, catalogue their development and recognize counterfeit works.
Check out the Trailer Here!
The shoot, which took place at SGS’s dedicated art laboratory in Geneva Freeport, focused on recent work undertaken on the painting, “The Paysage”, by renowned Belgian painter, René Guiette (1893–1976). During high-resolution digital X-radiography of the painting, SGS’s experts discovered Guiette has re-used the canvas of an earlier painting. The images clearly showed “The Paysage” had been painted over a previously lost Cubist painting, also by René Guiette. Until this point, the painting had been known only from contemporary photographs.
The mystery of the lost Cubist painting was solved during analysis for a report on the condition of the artwork. SGS experts use cutting-edge techniques, such as infrared reflectography and digital X-ray radiography, to look at all aspects of a canvas, including what has been over-painted.
The mystery of the lost Cubist painting was solved during analysis for a report on the condition of the artwork. SGS experts use cutting-edge techniques, such as infrared reflectography and digital X-ray radiography, to look at all aspects of a canvas, including what has been over-painted.
Left: a photograph of the artist René Guiette, with a partial view of the painting. Right: a digital X-ray image, in landscape orientation, with highlighted features from the underlying painting in red, for the features also visible above left; and in green, for new features discovered; SGS, Copyright, 2017.
The documentary, directed by Massimo Brega for Kepach Productions, interviewed SGS Art Services’ staff including, Global Manager Yan Walther, Senior Conservation Scientist Valeria Ciocan, and Conservation Scientist Marta Felix Campos. They explained how the lost painting was discovered and gave some insight into how modern technology is expanding our understanding of works of art and providing more clarity and transparency to the art world.
Valeria Ciocan acknowledged that this was a unique opportunity for SGS Art Services. The majority of SGS Art Services work is conducted in strict confidentiality but, thanks to the generosity of “The Paysage” owner, Manou de Kerchove D’Ousselghem, SGS has been able to use this opportunity to show the wider world how art expertise is changing thanks to state-of-the-art objective scientific techniques.
“The Sense of Beauty”, written and presented by Dominic Frisby, will be broadcast on Italian TV channel RAI 5 on November 17, 2017. The six-part series looks at the eternal question, ‘What is Beauty?’, and discusses how beauty has changed over time and is perceived differently by different cultures. SGS will appear in episode 5, to be shown on December 15 at 9:15 pm.
Valeria Ciocan acknowledged that this was a unique opportunity for SGS Art Services. The majority of SGS Art Services work is conducted in strict confidentiality but, thanks to the generosity of “The Paysage” owner, Manou de Kerchove D’Ousselghem, SGS has been able to use this opportunity to show the wider world how art expertise is changing thanks to state-of-the-art objective scientific techniques.
“The Sense of Beauty”, written and presented by Dominic Frisby, will be broadcast on Italian TV channel RAI 5 on November 17, 2017. The six-part series looks at the eternal question, ‘What is Beauty?’, and discusses how beauty has changed over time and is perceived differently by different cultures. SGS will appear in episode 5, to be shown on December 15 at 9:15 pm.
Check out the Making of Sense of Beauty and SGS Art Experts Lab Film here:
Entitled: The Sense of Beauty-Making Of at SGS Art Services Lab (English Subtitles); approx. 3:50 mins; SGS YouTube Channel; Copyright, 2017.
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