![Sample our Museum and Heritage Studies journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5945/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Museum-Heritage-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The subject of the research is an oil painting entitled Idyll created using an unusual technique. The painting layer was applied on canvas covered with photosensitive medium on which a photograph was developed. The results of the examination of Idyll in the context of its attribution to Henryk Siemiradzki (1843–1902) are discussed. Its atypical technology and the possibility of the artist having used the photographic technique are also considered. X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy were performed to establish the technique and to characterize the pigments and materials used in the painting. The identified pigments and the information provided by analytical photography (UV, X-ray images) were compared with the results of the detailed examination of 56 of Siemiradzki’s oil paintings. Performed analyses revealed that the majority of the features identified in Idyll point to Henryk Siemiradski’s technique.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Piotr Frączek for executing the photographs in visible light and analytical radiation presented in the article, Dr Maria Rogóż and Jan Ptak who respectively performed microchemical analysis and fibre identification, as well as Dr hab. Magdalena Śliwka-Kaszyńska and Olga Otłowska who are the authors of the HPLC–MS analyses mentioned in the text. D. Sarkowicz is grateful to Dr Ryszard Antoni Wójcik for the support, and fruitful discussions about the photographic techniques. The authors also thank Dr Agnieszka Kluczewska and Aneta Biały for the information about Siemiradzki’s contracts with the Franz Hanfstaengl’s Art Publishing House.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.