The Noninvasive Analysis of Paint Mixtures on Canvas Using an EPR MOUSE

Abstract

Many artists create the variety of colors in their paintings by mixing a small number of primary pigments. Therefore, analytical techniques for studying paintings must be capable of determining the components of mixtures. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy is one of many techniques that can achieve this, however it is invasive. With the recent introduction of the EPR mobile universal surface explorer (MOUSE), EPR is no longer invasive. The EPR MOUSE and a least squares regression algorithm were used to noninvasively identify pairwise mixtures of seven different paramagnetic pigments in paint on canvas. This capability will help art conservators, historians, and restorers to study paintings with EPR spectroscopy.