This window saw the truth.

  • Vincent van Gogh. <em>The Bedroom</em> (Window detail), 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation).

    Amsterdam

  • Vincent van Gogh. <em>The Bedroom</em> (Window detail), 1889. The Art Institute of Chicago, Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection.

    Chicago

  • Vincent van Gogh. <em>The Bedroom</em> (Window detail), 1889. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, sold to national museums under the Treaty of Peace with Japan, 1959.

    Paris

An open-and-shut case? Not exactly.

In the first Bedroom the window seems to be almost completely shut due to the angle of the window frames. In the second, both windows appear to be slightly open. In the third version, only the right window seems slightly open. The height and width of the windows also vary across the paintings.

Thanks to advanced technology called scanning macro-X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (a type of X-ray that scans the surface to identify the unique elemental makeup of pigments), we also now know that Van Gogh used different pigments for the various windows. For the first Bedroom, Van Gogh painted the window frame with emerald green but for the second used a mixture of emerald and viridian greens.

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© Art Institute of Chicago

Sponsors

Lead support has been provided by the Estate of Jacquet McConville.

Major support has been generously provided by Caryn and King Harris, The Harris Family Foundation; the Gilchrist Foundation; The Morris and Dolores Kohl Kaplan Fund; and Evonne and John Yonover.

Additional funding has been contributed by Constance and David Coolidge, the Mason Foundation, Charlene and Mark Novak, and the Comer Family Foundation.

Annual support for Art Institute exhibitions is provided by the Exhibitions Trust: Kenneth Griffin, Robert M. and Diane v.S. Levy, Thomas and Margot Pritzker, Betsy Bergman Rosenfield and Andrew M. Rosenfield, the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation, and the Woman’s Board.

The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Lead Corporate Sponsors

Conservation Sponsor