Automated classification of pen strokes in Van Gogh's drawings

In his letter of June 3, 1883, Vincent Van Gogh wrote 'drawing is at the root of everything.' Though much less well known than his paintings, Vincent used a large number of different kinds of strokes, hatchings, and dots to convey his unique vision in pen and ink. This paper presents a first attempt to automatically catalog the various kinds of pen strokes used throughout Vincent's career. The output of the process may be pictured in two ways: one which segments the sketch into regions dominated by a single style of stroke, and one which identifies and separates every occurrence of every stroke throughout the drawing. The ability to carry out such classifications will be of use to scholars of Van Gogh, to students learning the art of drawing, and may be useful in the automated translation from photograph to computer-drawing. Successful classification of pen and ink strokes may point towards ways of approaching the more difficult problem of identifying brush strokes in paintings. High resolution images used for this analysis are available at the website of the Van Gogh museum.