A Russian research team has discovered an Egyptian blue pigment in the paint layer of Robert Falk's "Birch – Spring" (1907).
Birch is a tree that grows in Europe and parts of Asia, and its leaves, bark, and buds are used in pharmaceutical drugs. The tree appeared in the works of many artists, but the one by Falk was unique, not only because he used the Egyptian blue pigment in the painting layer, but also because the researchers found traces of the pigment on the back of the canvas.
Robert Falk (1886-1958) is a Russian vanguardist painter, and a prominent member of the Creative Society (1910-1916).
As one of his earliest works, Falk drew "Birch – Spring" in the beginning of his journey as an artist, during his second year at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1907.
In the new study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Cultural Heritage (JCH), the research team used an energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscope and a polarizing microscope to examine the painting. They found that this work, drawn with oil on canvas by Robert Falk, was the first to use this unique pigment in the 20th century.
The Egyptian Blue, also known as calcium copper tetrasilicate or Alexandria frit or Pompeian blue, is one of the earliest synthetic pigments used by humans. It was first used in Ancient Egypt, in the late 4th dynasty (ca. 2613–2494 BC), and by other civilizations like the Ancient Romans.
It was also extensively produced throughout ancient Western Asia and the Mediterranean Region (Mesopotamia, Persia, Assyria, Urartu, Parthia and Greece).
The Egyptian blue pigment was previously detected as one of the main blue pigment in the Fayum mummy portrait (1st to 3rd centuries AD) and in the paint layer of the early Christian encaustic icons "Male and Female Martyrs" and "Sergius and Bacchus." It was also commonly used in the Roman Europe and even in Norway as well.
