Art Conservation Project

GRAPHIC: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Bank of America Art Conservation Project 2015 Grant Recipient

Lydia Vagts: The process of removing the varnish is complicated by the fact that the painting has probably been treated more than once, so we also find on the surface residues of an earlier varnish.

SUPER: Lydia Vagts, Cunningham Associate Conservator of Paintings

Lydia Vagts: We find wax residues from the lining process and we find a lot of cotton fibers spread across the surface from a previous cleaning. All of these materials that are stuck there are really interfering with the ability to look at the brushwork and really the appreciate the variation and the beauty of Van Gogh’s strokes because it’s covered with gunk.

SUPER: Before, After

SUPER: #mfaConservation

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Graphic: mfa Boston

Graphic: Introduction to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s support of the conservative of three Tudor Portraits

SUPER: Kerry Miles, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Kerry Miles: The Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Art Conservation Project is a unique program that provides funding for the conservation of works of art around the world that have a cultural significance or are important to the history of art. The objective of the program is really to foster and promote the heritage and the culture of the countries and regions where we live and work.

SUPER: Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery

Sandy Nairne: Having worked with Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, on the great exhibition of Louis and Freud's portraits a few years ago, we were delighted that the bank has now made it possible to help us through that conservation program. And for us therefore to be able to undertake this rather particular program of conservation on some of the Tudor portraits. This came out of work we’ve done with technical analysis of a few of these portraits. But this takes the whole stage further of actually bringing these portraits into the best possible condition so that they can be seen with others in comparison and enjoyed by the widest possible public.

Kerry Miles: This is an exciting opportunity for Bank of America to understand why and how some of the portraits of some of our most well-known kings and queens were made. During that conservation, many interesting techniques and findings came about, helping us to deepen our understanding about why these portraits were made.

Sandy Nairne: In the case of the portraits of Elizabeth I, there are many variations on these portraits. We have one in particular known as the Phoenix portrait of Elizabeth I and being able to with the bank's support, do the conservation work on that, means that we can see it in comparison with the great portrait known as the Pelican portrait that otherwise lives and belongs to the National Museum at Liverpool. So doing the conservation program, has allowed us to make comparisons to understand both the similarities and the differences and again for the work to be seen in quite a new way.

Kerry Miles: I think every school child in Britain looks at these images and they are some of the iconic images of the monarchs and we just thought how important it was to conserve these for future generations. And really we just feel privileged to be involved in sort of the discovery that goes on behind finding out why these portraits are made.

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.