An oil painting by Claude Monet, Port-Goulphar, Belle-Ile 1887 (collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales), was examined to determine both the identity of the pigments used by the artist in this painting and his technique of mixing colors and laying paint on the canvas. The extremely complex construction of the painting was revealed by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS), and X-ray mapping (XRM) analysis of cross sections of paint flakes excised from damaged regions of Port-Goulphar, Belle-Ile. Nine different pigments were found on the painting. Many of the identified colors were modern pigments that became available only late in the 19th century as a result of scientific advances in pigment chemistry. Although similar colors were available in a natural mineral form, they lacked the vivid color of their manufactured counterparts. The use of these new synthetic metallic oxide colors by Monet accounts for the brilliance of his paintings. In addition, a separation between successive paint layers was observed in some areas of paint chip cross sections, indicating that oil-based paint was applied to paint that had dried, and consequently, Port-Goulphar, Belle-Ile was painted over a long period of time. This observation is contrary to the general perception of Monet's technique of painting freely and quickly.

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The study of materials that comprise artworks significantly contributes to understanding of age and provenance. While dendrochronology is a particularly valuable and well-established technique for panel paintings comprising oak timber, conventional practices of resurfacing endgrains to reveal tree rings is becoming less acceptable because it removes material, modifying the painting. Recently, application of non-destructive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy to a portrait of Henry VIII held by the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) revealed tree-ring boundaries in the resulting high-resolution elastic scatter XRF map. In this study, we examine the dendrochronological potential of that mapping with the aim of contributing to resolving the relation of the AGNSW portrait to similar paintings elsewhere. Examination of the timber revealed affinities with Quercus petraea (Matt.). We measured tree-ring widths along multiple paths in the XRF scatter map and crossdated the resulting 81-year XRF ring-width (XRF portrait ) series against master chronologies of English, western European, and Baltic origin. Rather than an arbitrarily defined threshold, we used a Bonferroni correction to determine a minimum significance level for crossdating. While the XRF portrait series did not crossdate with the continental European chronologies, we identified a single significant (α = 3.4 x 10 -6 ) dating position with the English chronology (1400-1480 CE). Cross-matching with site-level chronologies revealed a cluster of high t-values in central-southern England. The earliest date of felling precedes the documented date of completion for the AGNSW and two similar Tudor portraits of Henry VIII held by the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), London and one at the Society of Antiquaries, London. While, the apparent British provenance of timber used in the AGNSW portrait contrasts to Baltic origin of timbers used for the two NPG portraits and the majority of English panel paintings, it is consistent with the provenance of the timber used for the Society of Antiquaries portrait.