Boudin`s Seaside Idyll Boudin`s Seaside Idyll

T h e b u l l e t i n o f T h e W i l l i a m s t o w n A r t C o n s e r vat i o n C e n t e r V o l u m e 2 , N u m b e r 1 • m ay 2 0 0 7
Boudin’s
Seaside
Idyll
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 1
Contents, May 2007
Art Conservator
Volume 2, Number 1 • May 2007
3 Director’s Letter
Director
Thomas J. Branchick
Editor
Timothy Cahill
Photographer
Matthew Hamilton
Art Direction and Layout
Kosak Design, Pittsburgh PA
Contributors
Mary Catherine Betz, Katrin Geng,
Hugh Glover, Michael Heslip,
Katherine Holbrow, Rebecca Johnston,
Henry Klein, Monserrat M.M. LeMense,
Cynthia Luk, Leslie Paisley, Gerri Ann
Strickler, Sandra Webber
Office Manager
Katherine Tremblay
Accounts Manager
Teresa Beer
Office Assistants
Rob Conzett
Susan Scherr
Printing
Network Printing Services,
Pittsburgh, PA
4 Boudin On the Beach
Williamstown
Art Conservation Center
225 South Street
Williamstown, MA 01267
www.williamstownart.org
T: 413-458-5741
F: 413-458-2314
All rights reserved. Text and photographs
copyright (c) Williamstown Art Conservation
Center (WACC), unless otherwise noted.
Art Conservator is published twice yearly
by WACC, Thomas J. Branchick, director.
Material may not be reproduced in any form
without written permission of Williamstown
Art Conservation Center. WACC is a nonprofit,
multi-service conservation center serving
the needs of member museums, nonprofit
institutions and laboratories, and the general
public.
2 | Art Conservator | May 2007
A lost masterpiece by the French seaside painter is rediscovered
8 Consummate Warhol
10 An Old Frame’s Reminiscences
An original 1845 Asher B. Durand frame epitomizes a classic American style
12 A Bouguereau Resurrection
14 Report from Atlanta
New Life for a Civil War Steamboat
16 WACC News & Notes
Dallas decorative fans, a New Hampshire tavern sign, a Cassatt pastel and
Cal Ripkin
21Tech Notes
Annual maintenance programs for outdoor sculpture
From the Director
Hot on the heels of October’s inaugural issue of Art Conservator, I am pleased to offer another
showstopper. We have received overwhelming praise for the new bulletin and thank everyone for their
feedback. We’ve always known the work we do at WACC and AACC is fascinating. Now, with our expanded editorial content and full-color photography, I feel like we are at last doing justice to the expert
treatments and dramatic aesthetic changes that take place here.
As you can see from the photo below, our new building on the Clark campus
is progressing. Not only can we visit the site and experience the glorious setting,
but we can now walk inside and get a feel for the lab spaces. The whole experience gives me goose bumps. When we move in next year, the new WACC will be
a fabulous facility and yet-another destination site in northern Berkshire. Special
recognition is due to trustees Bob McGill and John Craig for negotiating with the
Clark Art Institute on our lease agreement for the new building. Thanks to their
hard work and the Clark’s generosity, WACC’s future is secured for years to come.
January saw changes on the WACC Board of Trustees. Laurie Norton Moffatt, director of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, came on as the new board president, Valerie Kennedy continues
as vice president, Bob McGill was named treasurer and John Craig is now secretary/clerk. Many thanks
to outgoing term trustees Lee Dalzell, Sandy Laiman, David Fehr and David Dangremond.
Finally, WACC International. Thanks to the efforts of staff member Cynthia Luk and funding
from the Trust for Mutual Understanding and private benefactors, our projects abroad continue to
flourish. The latest development is a planned exchange with Mongolia that will send WACC staff to
Ulaanbaatar in July and Mongolian representatives to WACC in October. This is global warming of a
far more beneficial kind. —Thomas J. Branchick
Rafters and beams—Exterior walls are up and the inside spaces have begun to take shape as construction
progresses on WACCs new facility adjacent to the Clark Institute. Architect Tadao Ando designed the new center with
large expanses of natural light, as evident in this view of the future paintings lab.
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 3
Cover Story
4 | Art Conservator | May 2007
Boudin On The Beach
A lost masterpiece by
the French seaside painter
is rediscovered
B
efore it was ready to return to
public view, a long-forgotten masterwork by French artist EugeneLouis Boudin (1824-1898) was brought
first to the Williamstown Art Conservation Center for restoration and repair.
The painting, Beach Scene in Trouville, is
considerably larger than most of Boudin’s
work, and was painted at the height of his
career in the mid-1860s. It had been out of
circulation and was recently rediscovered
after decades in private hands.
Boudin is recognized as one of 19thcentury France’s minor masters, and
remains renowned for his choppy waters,
windy skies and airy, amiable depictions of
the Gallic shore. He is best known for his
scenes of Trouville, the Normandy seaside
town that in the 1860s became the Easthampton of its day. Boudin’s quick, soft
brushwork captured with equal ease the
shifting light of the coast and the insouciant charm of Parisians on the beach.
Boudin was born in the Normandy
coast town of Le Havre. He left school at
12, and worked in a printers shop before
buying a stationery business that also
sold frames and art supplies. Through
the shop he met local artists and developed aspirations to become a painter. To
avoid military service, Boudin sold his
store to pay another man to take his place
in the army. Unable to finance formal
training, he persisted in teaching himself
Beach Scene in Trouville by Eugene-Louis
Boudin, after treatment.
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 5
In addition to being obscured by a dull brown
haze, the result of oxidized varnish mixed with
decades of dust and grime, it was evident the
painting had suffered water damage along its
bottom edge.
6 | Art Conservator | May 2007
to paint. The young artist became known
for his “work, order and patience,” and
eventually won a grant to study in Paris.
Three years later, he returned to Normandy and devoted himself to painting
France’s coastal regions.
He painted en plein air, working outdoors directly from nature. He painted
the shifting face of the water and sky, he
painted boats, he painted peasant girls at
work. By 1860, the railroads had made
the Normandy coast easily accessible from
Paris, and tourists were soon transforming fishing villages into popular summer
“bathing-places” for the rich. The most
famous of these resorts was Trouville, and
Boudin became its chronicler, capturing
the easy leisure and chic beach fashions of
the newcomers.
Boudin, though not nearly as well
known as the artists he associated with, is
an important link in the chain of French
modernism. He counted among his
friends and colleagues Millet, Courbet
and Corot, who once declared, upon surveying the young Boudin’s atmospheric
scenes, “You are the master of the sky.” In
1858, Boudin met a fledgling artist earning
pocket money by drawing caricatures, and
taught him to paint outdoors. The pupil
was Claude Monet, who later wrote, “if I
became a painter, it was thanks to Boudin.
He was a man of infinite kindness and
took it upon himself to teach me.” Boudin
went on to exhibit with Monet in the first
Impressonist Exhibition in 1874.
Beach Scene in Trouville is in many
respects representative of Boudin’s mature
beach paintings, but in one significant way
has few peers. At more than 40 inches
wide and 26 inches high, the picture is
two to three times larger than a typical Boudin canvas. While these smaller
paintings tend to depict discrete tableaux,
Beach Scene, in contrast, presents a
charming panorama of linked episodes,
Opposite: The Boudin as it
arrived at WACC. Left: Detail
after restoration but before
restretching, showing the
canvas edge and existing
tacks marks.
thoroughly consolidated.
Close inspection of the
paint surface revealed that
Boudin had overpainted
his original signature and
re-signed the painting
slightly higher in the right
corner, and had painted
out a wind pole directly
above the seated woman
in the blue dress. Inspection also revealed that at
some point the painting
had been extended on all
sides, probably to accommodate a larger frame, and
given a glue-paste linen
lining. With the painting
removed from its stretcher
for treatment, Boudin’s
original tacking edge was
clearly visible 1 /4-inch
each with its separate drama. The
painting is dated 1865, a year when
Boudin is known to have produced a
large scene for the Paris salon.
The painting was brought to the
Williamstown Art Conservation Center for stabilization and cleaning. In
addition to being obscured by a dull
brown haze, the result of oxidized
varnish mixed with decades of dust
and grime, it was evident the painting had suffered water damage along
its bottom edge. WACC director and
chief paintings conservator Tom
Branchick discovered that moisture
had wicked up through the frame
into the stretcher and canvas. He
found cracking, cupping, cleaving
and flaking of the ground and paint,
and a condition known as “tenting,”
in which areas of paint lift off the
surface and create hollow pockets
underneath. “The topography of the
paint surface resembled a sea of corn
flakes,” says Branchick, “and the
trick was putting them all back down
without any overlap.”
The dirt and varnish were
removed with surfactant solutions
and cotton swabs and the paint layer
inside the extended picture edge. Inpainting had
been applied to mask the
enhanced edges.
The old lining was removed and
the painting was restretched to its
original size. Losses were filled and
inpainted. As a precaution, strip lining was added to stabilize the fabric
where it had been weakened by folding and tacking, but the picture was
left otherwise unlined. As a final step,
the painting was placed in a period
frame. This time, the frame was
resized to fit the masterpiece, rather
than the other way around. The
painting is expected to go to auction
later this year. j
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Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 7
Feature
Consummate Warhol
In 1962, Andy Warhol upended the art world when he exhibited thirtytwo paintings of Campbell’s Soup cans in a Los Angeles gallery. Except
for the flavor of soup on the label, the images of the ubiquitous cans
were nearly identical. The banal, aggressively aloof “still lifes” were a
challenge, simultaneously, to the history of art, the intense subjectivity of
Abstract Expressionism, and American consumerism. Warhol emerged as
the avatar of Pop Art, a movement whose irony, ambivalent commentary
and subversive detachment are still felt in the country today.
In “Warhola Becomes Warhol—Andy Warhol: Early Work,” an exhibition at the Williams College Museum of Art, the artist’s metamorphosis
from Pittsburgh-born commercial artist to international superstar is
traced in works ranging from whimsical illustrations of shoes to iconic
portraits, collages, and wallpaper. In preparation for display, a Campbell’s soup can signed by Warhol was brought to the Williamstown Art
Conservation Center for restoration.
Corrosion threatened both the can itself, made of tin-plated iron, and
its paper label. The first step was to remove the label without damaging
the paper or the signature. Paper conservator Leslie Paisley carefully
documented the exact position of the label in relation to a stamped
date on the top of the can. She separated its adhesive edge with a microspatula and undermined the three glue points that hold the paper to the
can; then, using a surgical scalpel, she removed a thin residue of rust
from the back of the clay-coated label. After treatment of the can was
completed, Paisley precisely reattached the label, complete with a slight
misalignment of the edges at the top of the seam.
8 | Art Conservator | May 2007
Various treatments of the metal can were considered, including covering
the entire surface with an thin “barrier” layer of mylar, aluminum leaf or
foil tape, all of which were finally rejected as impractical. The decision
was made simply to remove as much of the corrosion as possible with
a dissolving lubricant, then brush on a protective coat of acrylic resin.
“You can’t completely stop corrosion like this once it begins,” noted
objects conservator Gerri Ann Strickler. Translation: Rust never sleeps.
At some point in the can’s life, a pencil-sized hole was drilled into its
bottom and the soup drained out. A rattle suggested that not everything
had been removed, however, so the can was rinsed with acetone and
ethanol, yielding loosened particles of rust and what Strickler termed,
“other debris.” “It was clear brown,” she observed of the matter that
emerged from within. “Something more organic.”
The can became the centerpiece of the Williams exhibit, dramatically
isolated in a large case and illuminated by four spotlights. But is the work
really by Warhol? It was part of the collection of Richard Holmes, a
Williams grad and early enthusiast of the artist, who recently gifted his
extensive Warhol holdings to the college. Did Warhol sign the soup can
as a Duchampian gesture of appropriation? No, said Holmes—“I asked
him to.” What’s more, in an irony Warhol might have appreciated, the
felt-tipped autograph is growing inexorably fainter. “The signature will
be the next thing to go,” observed Leslie Paisley. “It will fade away.” j
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Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 9
Feature
An Old Frame’s Reminiscences
An original 1845 Asher B. Durand frame epitomizes a classic American style
by Hugh Glover
I
n February 2007, the original frame to the
1845 idyll An Old Man’s Reminiscences
was reunited with the painting by the famed
American landscapist Asher B. Durand. They had
been separated for fifty years, after the frame had
become too deteriorated for exhibition. Age had
broken much of the ornament off its surface, and
grime and paint
had obscured the
original gilding.
The frame was
brought to the Williamstown Art Conservation Center
for restoration so it
could accompany
the Durand on a
national tour.
Painting and
frame had entered
Section of the frame before treatment, showing the collection of the
losses of ornamentation at left and along the
Albany Institute
outer edges.
of History & Art
(then called the Albany Gallery of Fine Art) in 1847, just two years
after Durand created it. The landscape is one of
the centerpieces of the museum’s Hudson River
School collection.
The large frame is constructed of a pine substrate with applied molded composition (compo)
ornamentation. (The putty-like compo was made
of a combination of animal glue, water, resin,
linseed oil and chalk powder.) This quicker, less
expensive process was popular for most of the
19th-century, and contrasts with frames entirely
of carved wood. The Durand frame’s mass, profile, ornament, color, and gilded effects all epitomize the fashionable tastes of 1845. Its details are
far from unique. The same design, with different
corner treatments, can be found on at least one
10 | Art Conservator | May 2007
other Hudson River School painting.
The main molding profile is an ogee (S profile)
decorated with alternating scrolled foliage of
compo. The bold corners have cartouches flanked
by acanthus volutes, a scrolled foliate form derived
from the Mediterranean acanthus plant. There are
no embellished center ornaments. The main molding is impressed with a woven tulle-net texture,
a checkered decoration that mimics the laborious cross-hatching cut into gesso of the previous
century. The texture was created with tulle netting
being pressed into wet gesso before the compo was
applied. Other, earlier examples of this technique
have a raised-net texture with the tulle left in
place. The frame’s profile also includes an outside
scotia (a concave scoop) and back-edge molding.
The gilding is typical of the 1840s as well.
Oil gilding and burnished corner details cover
the ogee and its compo decoration, and water
gilding occurs on the plain surfaces, including
a burnished ovolo (a half-round molding) close
to the sight edge, and a matted cavetto (concave
quarter-circle molding) and outside cove. The
redder shade of gold is the result of alloying the
metal with more copper instead of silver, and was
probably intentional. The colors of the bole (the
clay preparatory layer beneath the gold leaf) are
dark red and grey, also true to the period.
The wood substrate and corner joinery are
also typical of the period, using clear white pine
with mitered, glued, and nailed corners. The rails
are laminated for efficient use of wood to create the large profile, and the reverse has a square
recess fitted with supporting glue blocks. The rails
are made in two parts, an outer section with the
main ogee profile, and an inner section with the
sight moldings. The sections are seated together
in a rebate and fastened using cut nails driven into
the glue blocks. The outside scotia is outlined by
a back-edge compo molding close to the wall, an
Asher B. Durand’s 1845 An Old Man’s Reminiscences in its newly restored original frame.
arrangement that was popular during the second
half of the 19th century.
The large size of the main ogee and outer scotia suggest that these molding profiles may have
been made on mechanical shaping and molding
machines, rather than being cut by hand-operated
molding-planes. Such machines, which increased
production and cut manufacturing costs, were just
at the development and patent stage around the
time the frame was made.
The frame’s conservation treatment took
about one hundred thirty hours, and involved
common frame issues. Some one hundred thirtyfive pieces of compo scroll were missing and
had to be remade by molding and casting epoxy
replacements, then adhering them in place. Loose
elements were secured, and the gilding had to be
cleared of grime and two generations of partial
bronze paint. Once revealed, the original gilt
work fortunately was in very good condition.
Painting and frame were reunited for the
exhibition “Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and
the American Landscape,” which opened at the
Brooklyn Museum in March, and will be at the
Smithsonian American Art Museum in September
and the San Diego Museum of Art in 2008. j
CC
Support for this conservation treatment came from
The Henry Luce Foundation and the Conservation
Grants Programs of the Lower Hudson Conference
of Historical Agencies and Museums. The project
was completed at WACC by Kat Geng, conservation technician, and Hugh Glover, chief conservator for furniture and wooden objects.
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 11
Feature
A Bouguereau
Resurrection
W
illiam Bouguereau (1825-1905)
was an artistic celebrity among
American Gilded Age collectors in 1889, the year he painted the
large religious scene Our Lady of the
Angels. The painting, typical of the high
French Academic style, was exhibited at
the 1893 Columbian World Exhibition in
Chicago, the last known time it was seen
publicly. At some point in the decades
that followed, the picture was ravaged by
fire, and extensive repairs were attempted
on the faces of the main figures. Fast-forward to 2005, when a Catholic convent in
the Catskills retained the Williamstown
Art Conservation Center to completely
restore the painting. The Sisters had, years
earlier, received the painting as a gift, and
now wished to sell it to raise funds for
the cloister. The job, to say the least, was
extensive, as WACC director and chief
paintings conservator Tom Branchick
explained in an interview with
Art Conservator.
Tom Branchick: Sometime, we don’t know
when, the upper third of the painting was
blistered by fire, and as a result the faces
of the Christ child and the Virgin were
completely overpainted. When the Sisters
asked, “What can you do for this?” I
wasn’t absolutely sure. Without knowing
what was underneath those two faces, one
couldn’t know how successful the restoration effort was going to be. Passages that
are totally overpainted are usually like
that for a reason—either somebody’s inept
at really painstaking inpainting, or there’s
nothing left underneath to reconstruct
from. That was the big gamble. I didn’t
know the answers to any of this. This was
a treatment where the painting was calling
the shots.
12 | Art Conservator | May 2007
Hopefully, when the overpaint,
carbon smoke and varnish were
taken off, there was going to be
enough of the original surface to
reconstruct from. Whoever had been
there before had just painted over the
existing faces. It was like they had
masks on. Nothing was left of Bouguereau. Fortunately, the overpaint
would come off. It was oil sitting on
top of the discolored varnish. Generally, the problem with removing oil
overpaint is its tendency to cross-link
to the original surface. Since it’s oil
on oil, removing the overpaint runs
the risk of etching the original surface as well. In this case, however,
the discolored varnish acted as an
interlayer over the original paint. I
was able to dissolve the varnish layer
and the overpaint essentially just
floated off.
Art Conservator: In essence , the dirt
was protecting it.
Exactly. This was one of those weird
treatments where perhaps divine
intervention entered into it so that
the painting could come back. The
inpainting process was very meticulous, because this was so broadly
overpainted. I had to interpret what
was missing from what was left
behind. It was a painstaking, connect-the-dots routine. The entire
treatment took nearly two hundred
hours to complete.
What else did you discover about the
picture?
After taking off the varnish and seeing that the overpaint was soluble, I
uncovered a pair of putti [the angel
figures] in the upper right corner,
where the smoke and fire damage
was. And they were practically in
Opposite: Bouguereau’s Our Lady of the Angels after treatment. Above: A detail of the
painting before treatment.
original condition. That was amazing. Usually a picture like this would
have been cleaned between 1889
and now, but I don’t think it was.
It had at least two or three varnish
layers on top of it, and whoever did
the overpainting of the losses in the
faces and the sky had rendered the
ethereal putti up there fairly invisible.
It looked like a big cloud in the corner, or actually, more like a big wasp
nest in the sky. I wasn’t even aware
they were there. We were able to dig
up an old photo of the painting—it
could possibly even been taken as the
picture came out of the artist’s studio —and there they are. Sometimes
the best conservation treatments are
resurrections. This one definitely was
of that ilk.
What did the treatment reveal about
the kind of painter Bouguereau was?
You just need to look at how adept
he was at blending color in very
broad strokes. Look at the faces
of the putti—he was applying very
thin areas of paint, and you can see,
that’s one stroke to get that blush on
that cheek. When you look at all the
flesh tones, the same kinds of things
are going on. There’s a highlight on
one of the putti’s outstretched arms.
Again, one stroke. This isn’t a tiny
brush. It’s a wide brush. He was so
agile in what he was doing. j
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Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 13
Report from Atlanta
New Life for a Civil War Steamboat
E
dward Everard Arnold (1816-1866)
spent most of the last twenty years
of his life living and painting in
New Orleans. Born in Germany, he moved
to the Southern port in 1846, where he
worked in watercolors and oils, specializing in ship portraits and, later, battle
scenes. He spent the first two years of
the Civil War in Havana, returning to New
Orleans in 1863. His 1865 The Side-Wheeler Cornudella Running the Union Blockade
under the Mexican Flag illustrates the
measures Confederate merchants took to
evade U.S. warships following the fall of
New Orleans in 1862.
The 22-by-30-inch picture is one of
many ship paintings owned by a private
New Orleans family. Like so much art, the
painting suffered considerable damage as
14 | Art Conservator | May 2007
a direct result of Hurricane Katrina. The
owners, like many New Orleans residents,
left behind most of their belongings when
they fled the storm. The paintings were left
hanging on the walls. Flood waters rose
approximately six feet in the home, submerging the bottom third of the Cornudella.
Although the canvas was wax-lined
during a previous restoration, it distorted
and shrank, causing significant tenting
and paint loss. As the water subsided,
residues were left behind and mold began
to grow on the surface. The old restorations were visible and heavy –handed.
In order to repair the damage caused by
Katrina, the old restorations also had to
be removed.
Without disturbing the flaking paint,
dry mold spores were removed before any
other treatment could take place. Flaking paint was set down where possible,
leaving behind significant areas of unconsolidated flaking and tenting. Grime and
flood residues were removed from the
areas of consolidated paint with aqueous
cleaning solutions.
To fully consolidate the remaining loose paint, it was necessary first
to remove the existing wax lining. The
amount of loose paint presented a challenge in this regard, since flipping the
work over was not an option. The canvas
had to be raised up on blocks and worked
on from underneath. The painting was
separated from its lining-canvas with a
spatula to break the wax bond, and wax
removed from the edges of the original
canvas with petroleum-based solvents.
Edward Everard Arnold’s Cornudella after Hurricane Katrina, showing water damage and surface distortions and, above, after
treatment at AACC.
In order to allow attachment to a working
strainer, Hollytex polyester strips were cut
into 1½ -inch “fingers” and adhered to the
underside of the canvas along the edges.
The canvas was then stretched onto the
this step, the raised flakes of paint would
have had no surface to sit back down
on. The canvas was humidified from the
reverse by laying it on moistened blotters. Once humidified, tension was placed
Like so much art, the painting suffered considerable
damage as a direct result of Hurricane Katrina.
strainer and elevated off the worktable to
gain better access to the reverse, keeping
the picture flat at all times. Once elevated,
the remaining wax was removed as thoroughly as possible.
Before the flaking paint could be
reconsolidated, it was necessary to
reverse the effects of canvas shrinkage
caused by moisture damage. Without
on the Hollytex fingers to gently pull the
canvas, to undo the surface undulations
and begin to regain some of the lost
area. This process was repeated several
times a day over the course of five days.
The procedure succeeded in regaining
approximately 1/8-inch to 3/16-inch of the
total shrinkage loss (estimated at about a
1/4-inch). It proved impossible to regain
the entire original canvas area.
Attention was turned next to the
paint surface itself. Under a microscope,
the remaining flaking paint was set back
down on the canvas. To further consolidate the paint layer, synthetic adhesive
was brushed onto the canvas reverse and
infused on a vacuum hot table. Only at this
point could the old varnish and previous
overpainting be removed, exposing the
original surface damage which included
large paint losses and removal of much of
the more thinly applied upper paint layers
which often contain the artist’s final subtle
details.. All these losses were filled and
inpainted. The Cornudella was given a new
canvas lining support and new stretcher.
The flood had rendered the old stretcher
so mold infested it was unusable.
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 15
WACC News & Notes
Objects Lab Renews
Dallas Decorative Fans
I
n 18th-century France, the folding fan
was a popular fashion accessory both
in court and throughout common society.
Women carried decorative fans not only
for comfort, but also as status symbols
and aids in flirtation. The 18th century was
a golden age for the folded fan throughout Europe. It had been brought from
China two centuries earlier, and by the
mid-1700s had become the province of
specialized craftsmen, who transformed
the simple implement into an elaborate
and ornate art object.
Six decorated fans of the era were
treated recently by the WACC Department
of Objects Conservation. They are part of
the Dallas Museum of Arts’ collection of
some thirty-two ornate fans, nearly all of
them from the 18th century. Five of the
six fans that arrived in Williamstown will
be part of an upcoming exhibition at the
museum, and needed stabilization and
restoration before going on display.
Objects conservator Gerri Ann Strickler examined the fans and found them
16 | Art Conservator | May 2007
Top: Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI are commemorated in a decorative 18th-century fan
in the Dallas Museum of Art. Above, detail of leaf painting depicting Rebecca at the well.
to be in reasonably good shape. The
main components of a folding fan are
the sticks—the spines or supports that
join at a single riveted hinge at the base
of the fan—and the leaf, the large folded
body of the fan, usually made of paper,
vellum (animal skin) or silk. The leaf is
attached to the sticks on ribs that extend
up through the folded material. The Dallas fans are notable for their flamboyance
—the sticks are of mother-of-pearl, ivory
or bone, decorated with piercings, ornamental appliqué and gold or silver, while
the leaves were predominantly painted
silk detailed with sequins, costume jewels, gold thread, even decorative straw.
The most vulnerable part of the old
fans were the accordion folds, the result
of centuries of use and storage. Strickler found tears and weak points along
the folds of all the silk fans. “Fabric that
old loses its suppleness,” she said. “The
fibers don’t want to give, they want to
break.” She reinforced the compromised
areas with Japanese paper, Stabiltex (an
open-weave polyester fabric) and sprayapplied adhesive. The Stabiltex and adhesive allowed for maximum adherence with
minimal contact on the old fabric.
Handling and oxidation had left the
sticks in need of thorough cleaning and
some small repairs. Mild enzymatic solutions were used to restore the luster of
the mother-of-pearl and remove tarnish
corrosion on the metal leaf. In some cases, the silver had been worn so thin that
cleaning would have removed it completely, and so was left untouched.
The painted passages on the leaves
are undoubtedly the most impressive
aspect of the Dallas fans. These include
coquettish courtship scenes, landmarks
of the Grand Tour, medallion portraits of
Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, and the
Bible episode of Rebecca at the well.
“The imagery was often copied
directly from paintings in the Paris Salon,”
explained the Dallas Museum’s Heather
MacDonald, assistant curator of painting
and sculpture. MacDonald has organized
an exhibit of the fans titled, “A Painting
in the Palm of Your Hand: 18th-Century
Painted Fans From the Wendy and Emery
Reves Collection,” which runs from June
17 through Oct. 14.
Gerri Strickler felt the intimacy of
the fans while she was working on them,
a sense of the women who had held
them before her. Back in Dallas, it was
Strickler’s conservation that MacDonald
observed.
“I really respect and appreciate all the
work Gerri did,” she said. “The fans look
so much more vivid and intact. More like
themselves.”
Some objects defy easy classification for placing in the care of any one
conservation discipline, and conservators may assemble as a team to represent multiple skills and different specialties for certain projects. The treatment of the 1825
M. Lord tavern sign from Effingham, N.H. was the collaboration of six conservators
and technicians from the paintings and furniture and wooden objects departments at
WACC.
Despite having been stored in a barn for more than a hundred years, the sign
was in quite remarkable condition. Restoration of the object, which was brought to
the lab by art dealer David Schorsch, was limited to removal of certain larger damages incurred during the time in the barn. After thorough documentation, treatment
steps involved consolidation of friable paint, cleaning of grime, dust and pest stains,
reproduction of a lost finial and length of ogee molding, some surface fills, and matte
inpainting. Most of these operations were completed in the furniture lab by conservators Erika Sanchez and Hugh Glover and technician Kat Geng, while cleaning and
inpainting were supervised by Mary Catherine Betz and Montserrat Le Mense in the
paintings department. After research, paintings conservator Michael Heslip suggested possible attribution of the sign to either John Usher Parsons (1806-1874) or Royall
Brewster Smith (1801-1849), itinerant artists active in the region during the 1830’s.
The project was completed when Bill Senseney, a local blacksmith, fashioned a metal
bracket for mounting to the wall.
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 17
WACC News & Notes
Leslie Paisley seals edges of glazing and mount for a Mary Cassatt pastel. Right: Detail of serrated eyelash hinge.
New Support for
A Cassatt Pastel
A
pastel drawing by Mary Cassatt
(1844-1926) was recently brought
to WACC warped so severely its powdery-chalk surface was nearly rubbing
against the glass of the frame. The treatment offered an object lesson in modern
advances of mounting works on paper.
Chief paper conservator Leslie Paisley estimated that the work had most
recently been mounted and framed within
fifty years. The undated pastel of a blond
girl measures slightly larger than 28 by
19 inches, and was done by Cassatt on
heavy blue-gray drawing paper. It had
been mounted using hide glue on brown
kraft paper, and stretched over a wooden
strainer. Wooden spacers were used to
separate the artwork and the glass.
The cause of the warping centered
18 | Art Conservator | May 2007
around the kraft paper, a non-archival wood pulp material once common
for wrapping packages. Warping had
occurred in part because the adhesive
had failed between the pastel and the
brown backing paper, but a more insidious cause had to do with the properties
of the different papers involved. Cassatt’s
art paper was very likely hand-made, and
reacted differently to environmental conditions than the thinner, machine-produced kraft paper. The distortion was the
result of the two papers expanding and
contracting at different rates. When the
backing paper was removed, the drawing flattened naturally without further
intervention.
The pastel was remounted using an
eyelash hinge, a serrated strip of Japanese paper. Wheat paste was applied only
to the tips or “eyelashes” of the paper,
creating a mounting margin that is strong
with a minimum of adhesive. The work
was then mounted on a support of 1/4”
honey-combed aluminum faced with
archival mat board. The aluminum support
is considerably more rigid than the previous wood strainer, yet half the thickness,
allowing more space between the art and
the glazing. The existing window glass
was replaced by a laminated, non-reflective, shatter-proof, UV-absorbing glass.
The work was sealed from dust, insects
and moisture with clear polyester tape,
and reframed.
The drawing, which had been hanging
in a private home, will now be housed in a
museum climate. The private owners have
arranged for their Cassatt, titled L’enfant
Blonde, to be on long-term loan at the
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
WACC Staff
Treatment Report
Object:
Cal Ripkin Ankle Brace
Owner:
National Baseball Hall of Fame
Background:
Worn by Ripkin in 1985; suffered
cracks during traveling exhibit
1. Medical tapes were removed and
2.
3.
4.
5.
Velco peeled back. The two halves
of the brace were reconstructed
using a copolymer resin and Japanese tissue. Not all edges joined
in-plane, possibly due to some distortion or spring upon breakage.
Further repair was needed along
some of the breaks with a slightly
stronger emulsion adhesive.
Small fills along the front of the
repairs were made with acrylic
molding paste as needed. The
signature was avoided, filling
between words and wider letter
gaps.
Losses were toned, where visible,
using acrylic paint.
A mount suitable for travel/storage/display was made using a prefabricated microfoam museum
“leg” support. The support was
trimmed, shaped and padded to
fit the brace and not appear as a
leg, per the client’s request.
Small strips of spun polyester
were placed within the Velcro
enclosures to weaken them and
provide less strain on the brace
material during handling.
Note: The brace is fragile and
requires minimal handling and low
light levels to prevent fading of the
inscription as well as embrittlement
of the brace material. The Velcro
straps should remain engaged at all
times.
Thomas J. Branchick
Director; Conservator of Paintings/
Dept. Head
Teresa Beer
Accounts Manager
Mary Catherine Betz
Assistant Conservator of Paintings
Rob Conzett
Office Assistant-Full Time
Katrin Geng
Conservation Technician
Hugh P. Glover
Conservator of Furniture and Wood
Objects/Dept. Head
Matthew Hamilton
Photography Technician
Michael L. Heslip
Conservator of Paintings
Katherine A. Holbrow
Conservator of Objects/Dept. Head
Rebecca Johnston
Conservator of Paper
Henry Klein
Conservation Technician
Montserrat M.M. Le Mense
Associate Conservator of Paintings
Cynthia Luk
Conservator of Paintings
Yasuko Ogino
Associate Conservator of Paintings and
Frames, Atlanta
Leslie H. Paisley
Conservator of Paper/Dept. Head
Susan Scherr
Part Time Office Assistant
James Squires
Associate Conservator of Paintings,
Atlanta
Gerri Ann Strickler
Associate Conservator of Objects
Katherine B. Tremblay
Office Manager
Sandra L. Webber
Conservator of Paintings
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 19
WACC News & Notes
tions about a series of Andy
Warhol works on paper currently on exhibit at Williams
College.
Elianny Camilo, 17, an ABC
scholar and senior at Mt. Greylock High School, will take part
in a senior internship at WACC
from May 11 to June 1. Elianny,
originally from New York City,
is sponsored by Greylock
ABC, local chapter of A Better
Chance Inc, a national program
that helps under-represented
youth assume positions of
responsibility and leadership
in American society. At WACC,
she will work daily doing
simple supervised work in the
furniture and wood objects lab.
Paintings conservator Sandra Webber describes her work on a medieval panel painting for WACC
Friends Circle members.
WACC has been awarded a $40,000
grant to support an exploratory exchange
program with Mongolia. The grant, from
the New York-based Trust for Mutual
Understanding, will fund collaboration
between WACC and Mongolian cultural
officials, including the Arts Council of
Mongolia, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, and the Cultural Heritage Center in the capital Ulaanbaatar.
A delegation of WACC conservators
will visit Mongolia for two weeks in July
to receive an overview of conservation
activities, including important meetings
at the Ministry where Mongolian national
preservation needs and goals will be
discussed. In October three Mongolian
conservators are tentatively scheduled to
visit Williamstown to view our operations
and visit some member museums. Future
collaborations are expected to evolve.
Paper conservation department head Leslie Paisley attended a workshop on treatment options for black-and-white silver
gelatin photographs at the National Con20 | Art Conservator | May 2007
servation Training Center in Shepardstown,
West Virginia. The four-day workshop,
sponsored by AIC (the American Institute
for Conservaion of Historic and Artistic
Works), combined lecture demonstrations
of traditional and innovative treatment
practices with laboratory work on actual
photographs. Participants learned a variety
of remedial conservation procedures to
protect and stabilize silver gelatin prints.
WACC conservators Sandra
Webber and Hugh Glover
were part of a team of experts
taking part in “Find Out About Your Work
of Art,” an event organized by the Sterling
and Francine Clark Art Institute Library.
Museum members were invited to
research art they owned with the conservators and Clark librarians and curators.
Transitions:
Xian Zhang
m The Williamstown Art Conservation
Center Friends Circle, led by Ann Blake
and Carol Stegeman, continues to
grow. The Friends Circle, open to the public by subscription, allows members to see
behind the scenes at WACC. Earlier this
year, ten people took part in “Restoring
Life to an Art Work: An Insiders View” at
the Center. The event featured paintings
conservator Sandra Webber describing
the complex stages of reconstruction of
the damaged medieval Spanish painting
St. Anthony Abbot by Pedro Garcia de
Beneberre. Leslie Paisley, head of the
paper department, also answered ques-
Katrin Geng
has accepted
a position as
conservation
scientist at
the lab. She
is scheduled
to begin July
1. Furniture
Technician
Katrin Geng
is leaving the center May 31 to pursue
travel to Mexico and beyond. Erika
Sanchez, former Master Apprentice in
Furniture and Wood Objects, is engaged
in a nine-month contract with the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of a team
reinstalling the museum’s Period Rooms.
Tech Notes, Spring 2007
Annual Maintenance Programs
for Outdoor Sculpture
Katherine A. Holbrow
M
aintaining outdoor sculptures can be a very
challenging problem for conservators, curators and collectors alike. Outdoor art works
are frequently very large in scale, and for design reasons
may often be installed in inaccessible locations (such as
reflecting pools or tall pedestals). Exposure to extremes
of weather, and to continued public contact, causes degradation and damage to occur more quickly than is true
for most other art collections. These factors combine to
make conservation of outdoor works both frequently
necessary and very costly.
Unfortunately, the high cost of outdoor sculpture
maintenance is often unanticipated by the owners. Decisions to exhibit public monuments and outdoor works
are made through a variety of channels (during an
architectural expansion, perhaps, or through veterans
groups or arts committees), and often without consulting museum professionals. Ideally, the “hidden” costs of
outdoor sculptures should be evaluated prior to acquisition, and again before installation. Often, maintenance
costs could be much reduced by choosing more durable
materials or practical locations; all too often these realizations come too late.
Take a proactive approach As with all art, preventive care is the best defense. Preservation plans for
outdoor sculptures should always include a schedule of
regular maintenance, including inspections and documentation of condition, periodic cleaning and minor
conservation. Minor touch-ups can keep a sculpture
looking its best between major treatment campaigns,
and annual inspections can catch small problems before
they become big ones.
Outdoor sculpture exists in the public forum, and
provides countless opportunities for arts education. It
follows that a good annual maintenance plan can make
the most of local participation. Publicizing the goals of
a maintenance program also helps to discourage vandalism. Community volunteers and student assistance promote arts awareness as well as mitigate costs.
Maintenance programs can be more reliable and
cost-efficient if they rely on in-house staff, rather than
on outside contract conservators. Even minimal washing and waxing can be time-consuming and expensive
on a per-hour rate. The weather may cause delays, and
other public events often conflict. Counting on a visit-
ing conservation team to complete a comprehensive
cleaning program in one tightly-scheduled visit may be
impractical. Instead, museum staff may find it more
realistic to plan periodic work days (or work weeks) for
cleaning on a flexible schedule, spaced throughout the
summer months.
Conservation expertise is a necessary component
of any maintenance program, of course, and an efficient
program will use that expertise to the best advantage.
An efficient method may be to have a conservation team
spend several days on-site at the beginning of the summer, to help launch the program, make initial assessments of the sculptures, and to provide expert assistance. Once underway, conservator participation can
be limited to briefer visits, telephone consultations, and
major treatments.
General maintenance procedures Documentation
is an important first step in any conservation maintenance program. One useful method for record-keeping is
to create a loose-leaf binder containing separate indexed
entries for each sculpture. Images and diagrams, annual
maintenance logs, and an initial thorough examination
can be kept in each section for easy reference.
For most sculptures, an annual maintenance program should include regular washing with light hose
pressure, using a dilute solution of mild detergent in
water1 followed by water rinse. Use soft, nylon bristle
brushes or sponges to apply the detergent.2 Proper
washing and wax maintenance will also provide the
opportunity to examine the sculpture closely. Changes
in surface patina, pitting/streaking or other evidence of
corrosion, blanching, structural problems or damage
should be documented.
The environmental conditions surrounding an outdoor sculpture can affect its condition. Encroaching vegetation, which may encourage bird, animal, and vandal
activity, should be cleared. Weep holes in the sculpture
should always be kept clear to allow water drainage.
Protective roofing or enclosures should be considered for
the winter months in colder climates.
Whenever possible, discourage the public from
touching or climbing on outdoor sculptures. Applied surface coatings are easily scratched, and will be worn away
by excessive handling. Natural barriers such as landscaping (e.g., plants or gravel to discourage skateboarders and
bicycles), adequate lighting at night, and security patrols
can reduce the need for expensive repairs.
Choosing protective coatings for outdoor sculpture
Many sculptures, especially metal ones, can benefit
from using “sacrificial” protective coatings. An inert,
transparent coating is applied over the finished sculpture, which can be removed (without damaging the artWilliamstown Art Conservation Center | 21
work below) and replaced as it becomes dirty or worn.
Regular application and renewal of protective coatings
can be cost-effective means of prolonging the life of the
sculpture, since they are much less intrusive and less
expensive to replace or adjust than are the artist’s original surfaces.
Wax is a common, easy and effective choice for protecting metals and other materials both indoors and out.
It is used on most bronzes and on some painted sculptures. Wax can be tinted, and hardness can be adjusted
by mixing waxes of different molecular weights. Protective wax coatings are inexpensive and easily reversible,
but are not as durable as harder resins or varnish coatings. Wax coatings should be renewed regularly (once or
twice a year depending on conditions).
Application of wax is a relatively safe and simple
process, and can be carried out by the owner or a staff
member with basic training. A hard, transparent, paste
wax3 should be applied thinly and evenly or excess wax
will build up, collect foreign airborne debris, and blanch
(turning white or light gray) with time. Multiple thin
coats of hard wax, compacted by buffing, are preferable
to a single, thick application, making it more laborintensive than other coatings.
In some cases, a harder, more durable coating than
wax may be needed. A mirror-bright finish may require
greater protection than wax can offer, for example, or a
sculpture’s inaccessible site could make annual maintenance too difficult. Acrylic resins, developed for outdoor
use, are typically recommended in such a case.4 Unlike
wax, resins coalesce as they cure to form a water-impermeable barrier. Resins can also contain useful additives
such as ultraviolet light absorbers or graffiti-releasing
agents, and can be appropriate coatings for painted polychrome sculptures as well.
Acrylic resins can be more time-consuming and difficult to apply than wax. Resins often contain hazardous
organic components (such as toluene), and so should be
applied by trained professionals with appropriate safety
controls in place. Resins form a cohesive film, linked on
a molecular level, which can flake or peel in an unsightly
manner when it begins to degrade. Thus, renewal of
such coatings must be preceded by thorough removal.
Incralac™ acrylic resin is often chosen by conservators as a protective coating for patinated bronze sculptures. Developed by the corrosion engineers and intended for use in the electronics industry,5 Incralac contains
a corrosion inhibitor benzotriazole that can help to protect bronze. While offering added protection, Incralac
is typically applied in the aromatic solvent toluene, and
so needs special safety considerations and conservation
expertise. It should only be applied, removed, or otherwise treated under the supervision of a conservator.
Like all outdoor coatings, Incralac may require
touching up every few years, and ideally should be
renewed overall every ten years or so, depending on
environmental conditions. Again, regular annual maintenance (and even additional wax layers) can protect the
Incralac coating and add years to its lifespan.
Summary Outdoor sculpture maintenance requires
permanent, long-term commitment of museum staff
and funds. Careful planning and good management can
stretch budgets for this necessary, but expensive, aspect
of collections care, as can good public education and
volunteer programs. j
C
1 Different surfactants are appropriate for different substrates. For most metal or painted surfaces, one teaspoon/
gallon of mild anionic synthetic detergent such as Orvus
WA Paste, available from Conservation Support Systems,
telephone 800-482-6299, is appropriate.
2 Soft bristle brushes with plastic handle and ferrule for
dusting, cleaning and wax application are available from autobody supply companies such as Griot’s Garage, telephone:
800-345-5789.
3 Such as Butcher’s White Diamond paste wax, available at
most hardware stores.
4 Historically, natural resins such as shellac, and oils including linseed oil have been used but these are not currently
recommended because sunlight exposure and weathering
can make removal very difficult.
5 Developed by INCRA, the International Copper Research
Association, now the International Copper Association
(ICA).
b katherine
s. holbrow is chief conservator of objects
at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center. In addition to degrees from Amherst College (1984) and the
University of Massachusetts (1990), she earned her MS
in conservation from the University of Delaware/Winterthur Museum Art Conservation Program in 1994. She is
a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation.
22 | Art Conservator | May 2007
Members of the Consortium
Williamstown
Henry Sheldon Museum
Rhode Island School of Design
Art Conservation Center
of Vermont History
Museum of Art
—225 South Street
—Williamstown, MA 01267
—Middlebury, VT
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art,
Richard F. Brush Art Gallery,
Cornell University
St. Lawrence University
Phillips Academy
Historic Deerfield, Inc.
Albany Institute of History and Art
—Albany, NY
Alice T. Miner Colonial Collection
—Chazy, NY
The Arkell Museum at Canajoharie
—Canajohari, NY
—Ithaca, NY
—Deerfield, MA
Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University
—Hempstead, NY
—Glens Falls, NY
Art Complex Museum
The Lawrenceville School
—Duxbury, MA
Atlanta Historical Society, Inc.
—Atlanta, GA
Bennington Museum
—Bennington, VT
Berkshire Museum
—Pittsfield, MA
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
—Brunswick, ME
—Lawrenceville, NJ
for member institutions, and for
other non-profit organizations,
—Potsdam, NY
tion of works of art and objects of
cultural interest; to participate in the
—Springfield, MA
the importance of conservation
Mead Art Museum,
Art Institute
and increase the awareness of the
Amherst College
—Amherst, MA
—Williamstown, MA
Memorial Art Gallery,
George L.K. Morris Foundation
University of Rochester
—Rochester, NY
Middlebury College Museum of Art
—Middlebury, VT
Manchester Historical Society
Colby College Museum of Art
—Athens, PA
Union College
—Schenectady, NY
—Montpelier, VT
Vermont Museum and Gallery
Institute Museum of Art
Alliance
—Hartford, CT
seminate knowledge to advance the
profession.
Tioga Point Museum
—Utica, NY
Museum of Connecticut History
—Waterville, ME
Connecticut Historical Society
—South Hadley, MA
Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts
and to conduct research and dis-
—Lenox, MA
Vermont Historical Society
issues pertinent to collections care;
Suzy Frelinghuysen and
—Manchester, CT
training of conservators; to promote
Sterling and Francine Clark
Mount Holyoke College
respect to the care and conserva-
Association
Art Museum
—Deerfield, MA
conduct educational programs with
Springfield Library and Museums
Deerfield Academy
The Cheney Homestead of the
corporations and individuals; to
—St. Johnsbury, VT
Charles P. Russell Gallery,
and related conservation services
State University of New York
St. Johnsbury Athenaeum
The Hyde Collection
—Elmira, NY
—Corning, NY
Arnot Art Museum
of our cultural heritage; to provide
examination, treatment, consultation,
Roland Gibson Gallery,
Dartmouth College
—Hanover, NH
non-profit institution, is to protect,
The Rockwell Museum
—Shelburne, VT
Williams College Museum of Art
—Williamstown, MA
Neuberger Museum,
Purchase College,
Atlanta Art Conservation Center
The Daura Gallery
State University of New York
—6000 Peachtree Road
at Lynchburg College
—Atlanta, GA 30341
—Hartford, CT
—Lynchburg, VA
—Amherst, MA
The Farnsworth Art Museum
—Rockland, ME
Fort Ticonderoga
—Ticonderoga, NY
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center,
Vassar College
—Poughkeepsie, NY
—Purchase, NY
New Hampshire Historical Society
Albany Museum of Art
Office of General Services,
Empire State Plaza Art Collection
Booth Western Art Museum
—Albany, NY
at Stockbridge
—Stockbridge, MA
—Ogdensburg, NY
—Columbia, SC
The Columbus Museum
Picker Art Gallery,
Colgate University
High Museum of Art
—Hamilton, NY
Portland Museum of Art
—Cartersville, GA
Columbia Museum of Art
—Clinton, NY
—Albany, GA
Norman Rockwell Museum
Hamilton College
Frederic Remington Art Museum
—Montgomery, AL
New York State
Fred L. Emerson Gallery,
Alabama Historical Commission
—Concord, NH
Eric Carle Museum of
Picture Book Art
he mission of The Williamstown
Art Conservation Center, a
conserve, and maintain the objects
—Canton, NY
Hood Museum of Art,
T
—Providence, RI
Addison Gallery of American Art,
—Andover, MA
Mission Statement
—Portland, ME
—Columbus, GA
—Atlanta, GA
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
—Montgomery, AL
Preservation Society
Morris Museum of Art
of Newport County
—Newport, RI
—Augusta, GA
Telfair Museum of Art
—Savannah, GA
Williamstown Art Conservation Center | 23
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24 | Art Conservator | May 2007