Painted following an extensive study of Van Gogh's drawing technique throughout his lifetime, thus building a good manual fluency and approximation of his gestures. The work also draws on the results of the 3D imaging used to understand the author’s preferred textural effects, the pigment analyses and X-ray fluorescence scanning to map the distribution of chemicals within the picture. These studies were published by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, home of the original.

The violet in Van Gogh's composition was achieved by mixing blue with an eosin-based red lake known as geranium lake; the pigment has since faded almost completely, a change later confirmed as evidenced by its bromine signature under X-ray fluorescence. This copy sits between the work's original and present-day colouring; thus, the painting, although still very close to how the original appears today, has regained a measure of the vitality it possessed at the moment of its creation.

The ground layer was prepared with historically consistent yellowing. The picture was left unvarnished, in keeping with Van Gogh's own preference and desires as well expressed in his letters.

The client's request was simple: to live, daily, with something otherwise found only behind glass, a few minutes at a time. This is how this commission began.