Grasshopper in van Gogh
AN art museum put an 1889 work by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh under the microscope – and found the dried carcass of a 128-year-old grasshopper in the paint.
Mary Schafer, conservator at the Kansas City museum, said of her find in the work, Olive Trees: “I was trying to understand the different layers of the painting and how it was constructed, and came upon part of the body of this little grasshopper.
“The fact that we have this little surprise of a grasshopper is a fun way to have a new look at a van Gogh.”
Van Gogh usually painted outdoors and once wrote to his brother: “I must have picked up 100 flies and more on four canvases you’ll get.”