Narrator: A quiet revolution is underway at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. In the conservation lab, a team is at work protecting 16 portraits by American artist, Gilbert Stuart. The 200-year old paintings include the likenesses of Presidents Washington and Adams and Adam's wife, Abigail.
SUPER: Joanna Dunn, Painting Conservator – National Gallery of Art
Joanna Dunn: Our goal is to bring the painting back to how it looked when the artist finished it and how the artist wanted it to be seen.
Narrator: Stuart was the premier American portrait painter just after the Revolution. Not only did he do portraits of Presidents and their wives, but also businessmen, lawyers and diplomats.
Joanna Dunn: This is a portrait of Luke White.
Narrator: Once the portrait was finished, it was varnished for protection. But after a few years the varnish begins to yellow, compromising the intensity of the color and changing the visual impression.
Joanna Dunn: I've removed the varnish from this square here and this square here. And you can see that this cravat was a much brighter white and his coat was actually blue, not this grayish green that we see here.
Narrator: This early Stuart portrait of the first President presents a different impression of Washington when clean.
SUPER: Nancy Anderson, American and British Paintings – National Gallery of Art
Nancy Anderson: You get to see the virtuoso technique because nothing is obscuring it anymore. And you can see here just on Washington, how many painters can do 5:00 shadow that looks like that?
Narrator: Each portrait is a singular likeness combined with Stuart's impression of the sitter's personality.
Nancy Anderson: He did not particularly enjoy sitting for perhaps any artist. Stuart, he had other things to do.
Narrator: On another Stuart painting, a large rip in the canvas is being repaired by a process known as in-painting.
Joanna Dunn: It’s been repaired before, but the old restoration paint covered a lot of the original paint and it no longer matched the color.
Narrator: When finished, only a trained eye will be able to detect the difference between the original paint and the repaired rip. Thanks to a grant from Bank of America, work on the Stuart portraits is nearly complete with a new exhibition plan for the fall. Tom Richey, Associated Press.