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For the last several years, I have been interacting with the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Van Gogh used several lake pigments in order to have a brilliant magenta in his palette. One of these was geranium red lake, made from the eosine. (Eosine is still used today as a topical aniseptic.)

Taking in-situ spectral measurements of faded and protected areas on the work of art, making drawdowns of similar pigments, using a paint-mixing model, digital imaging of the artwork using a color-managed camera, and appropriate image processing, it is possible to simulate the work of art in its before fading.

Here is a low-resolution movie of unfading van Gogh's "Daubigny's Garden":

This movie was made by Jennifer Herman, a senior at RIT in the Animation department.

I also was involved in digital unfading of several van Gogh drawings. Click here