Novel application of liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry for the characterization of drying oils in art: Elucidation on the composition of original paint materials used by Edvard Munch (1863-1944).

Modern oil paints, introduced at the beginning of the 20th century, differ from those classically used in antiquity in their chemical and compositional features. The main ingredients were still traditional drying oils, often used in mixtures with less expensive oils and added with several classes of additives. Consequently, detailed lipid profiling, together with the study of lipid degradation processes, is essential for the knowledge and the conservation of paint materials used in modern and contemporary art. A multi-analytical approach based on mass spectrometry was used for the study of original paint materials from Munch's atelier, owned by the Munch Museum in Oslo. The results obtained in the analysis of paint tubes were compared with those obtained by characterizing a paint sample collected from one of the artist's sketches for the decoration of the Festival Hall of the University of Oslo (1909-1916). Py-GC/MS was used as screening method to evaluate the presence of lipid, proteic or polysaccaridic materials. GC/MS after hydrolysis and derivatization allowed us to determine the fatty acid profile of the paint tubes, and to evaluate the molecular changes associated to curing and ageing. The determination of the fatty acid profile is not conclusive for the characterization of complex mixtures of lipid materials, thus the characterization of the triglyceride profiles was performed using an analytical procedure based on HPLC-ESI-Q-ToF. This paper describes the first application of HPLC-ESI-Q-ToF for the acquisition of the triglyceride profile in a modern paint sample, showing the potentialities of liquid chromatography in the field of lipid characterization in modern paint materials. Moreover, our results highlighted that the application of this approach can contribute to address dating, authenticity and conservation issues relative to modern and contemporary artworks.
(Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.)