Wishard Hospital Murals

When you walk into the exhibition, you are greeted by a rare glimpse of art conservation.  The first painting you will see is Carl C. Graf’s Three Muses, which is presented in a partially conserved state.  The left side of the painting has not yet been conserved and is obscured by dirt, discolored varnish, and heavy restorer’s overpaint.  Walking into the gallery is like a behind-the-scenes visit to the conservation lab.  Take a look for yourself in the image below.

Three Muses

The difference in color speaks for itself.  Beneath those heavy darkened layers of the previous restorer’s materials there are delicate details and soft colors of the original painting.  Did you know that the human eye perceives value (dark and light) and color differently?  The discolored varnish effects both value and color, drastically altering the way you visually perceive the painting.  Once the exhibition closes, the conservation treatment of The Three Muses will be completed and this rare opportunity to see the process in person will be gone.

The Three Muses isn’t the only glimpse of the conservation work; there is a whole wall in the gallery that gives you a chance to observe and compare the process.  On the same wall as The Three Muses, there are two landscapes by Jay H. Connaway.  One has been conserved by the IMA and the other still retains the discolored materials from the 1967 restoration attempt.  Can you tell which one has been conserved?

two landscapes by Jay H. Connaway

As with The Three Muses, the color difference clearly shows how the current, careful conservation treatments have helped reveal the true palette of the painting.  With all the old restoration materials removed from the painting, the original colors and details can once again be seen and appreciated in Connaway’s Landscape with Rolling Hills—the painting on the right.  For a detailed, step by step, account of the IMA conservation treatment of Jay H. Connaway’s Landscape with Rolling Hills, check out the Flickr set here.

If you look closely at the Connaway landscape on the left, you can see the areas of damage and overpaint.  Conservators begin the examination and detection of these restored areas by simple observation of the surface.  The over paint is often discolored and no longer matches the surrounding original paint.  There is also a textural difference between the overpaint and the original paint; often the overpaint is more thickly applied.  Can you spot the overpaint in this detail?

Landscape with Rolling Hills

Perhaps you noticed right away that some of the details in this area of the composition (the bottom center of the painting) looked a little clumsy and heavy?  If not, the arrow in the image below will point you in the right direction.

overpaint detail

The portion of the bent tree indicated by the blue is much thicker and heavier that the original brushstrokes applied by the artist.  The color of this over painted area is also different from the original paint.  That makes this areas appear very flat; it lacks the same delicacy and detail that works in the other original areas of the composition.

Of course, looking at these paintings in person gives you a chance to better see these details and understand the importance conservation has on the visual appearance and interpretation of these murals.

Preserving a Legacy: Wishard Hospital Murals closes on March 29, 2009.

The portion of the bent tree indicated by the blue is much thicker and heavier that the original brushstrokes applied by the artist.  The color of this over painted area is also different from the original paint.  That makes this areas appear very flat; it lacks the same delicacy and detail that works in the other original areas of the composition.

Of course, looking at these paintings in person gives you a chance to better see these details and understand the importance conservation has on the visual appearance and interpretation of these murals.

Preserving a Legacy: Wishard Hospital Murals closes on March 29, 2009.

Clifton Wheeler, Women and Children. 39" x 70". Photograph by Tad Fruits.

Between 1914 and 1916 thirty-three murals were painted by Hoosier artists to promote healing at Wishard Hospital.  Many of the murals have been lost or damaged over time.  The IMA has been working on the conservation of many of the surviving murals since 2003.  The IMA will host an exhibition Preserving a Legacy: Wishard Hospital Murals that showcases 13 of the surviving murals at various stages of conservation and a portrait of Dr. Wishard painted by T.C. Steele in 1924.  The exhibition runs from January 17, 2009-March 31, 2009.

Throughout the decades the Burdsal building where the paintings were located sustained structural problems and several water leaks damaged the murals.  In 1967, the murals underwent a restoration attempt where several of the paintings were removed from the walls.  The process of removing the murals caused several damages and tears that were subsequently covered by excessive filling and overpainting.  Some of the murals that remained on the walls are now covered under several layers of wall paint.

Small traces of covered murals are still evident in the Burdsal building.  The texture from the original paint or the canvas slightly translates through the subsequent layers of wall paint.  In the image below Linda Witkowski, Senior Conservator of Paintings at the IMA, points out the underlying texture from one of the covered murals still on the wall in the Burdsal building of Wishard Hospital.  This area of the covered mural appears to be the legs of a figure, probably a child since so many of the murals depict children.

3rd floor Burdsal building

If you look closely at this detail image of the same area, you might be able to see it too.

Closer look

It may be hard to see since the texture is so faint.  In the image below, the rough outline for the figure has been sketched out in blue.

Outlined in blue

The wear and tear of the Burdsal building even affected the layers of wall paint and in some areas those layers peeled away to reveal small glimpses of the underlying murals. In the image below, Anne Emison Wishard points to flaking wall paint that covers one of the wall murals in the Burdsal building.  Above Anne’s hand, a foot from one of the figures in the murals is visible.

3rd floor of Burdsal building

The largest visible portion of the murals in the Burdsal building is an area that was once covered by a bank of storage lockers.  The lockers protected it from the layers of wall paint that were applied to the rest of the walls.  We counted at least three layers of wall paint that were applied on top of the murals: blue, cream, and green.

3rd floor of Burdsal building

The IMA’s conservation efforts to date have mainly focused on the murals that were removed from the walls during the 1967 restoration attempt.  The conservation work completed by IMA conservators has included the careful removal of heavy layers of dirt and discolored varnish from the surface of the paintings, removal of the heavy overpaint and excessive filling, and careful inpainting to reintegrate the damages.  For a glimpse of the step by step conservation process of the murals, please visit the IMA’s flickr account for T.C. Steele’s Autumn Landscape, Red Trees.

In the image below, Linda Witkowski is beginning the varnish removal of Carl C. Graf’s painting The Three Muses.  This painting will be a rare treat for visitors to the Wishard mural exhibition.  The painting will be shown in various stages of conservation: one portion of the painting will be left in the before treatment stage with all the layers of dirt, discolored varnish, and heavy overpaint; the central area of the painting will be cleaned to remove those layers so that the damages can be seen; and the right side of the painting will show the completed stages of conservation with the damages carefully inpainted.

Detail of Three Muses by Carl C. Graf

The conservation treatment of the murals has shown a dramatic transformation: the original colors of the paintings were revealed from underneath the discolored layers of dirt and yellowed varnish and surviving areas of original paint were uncovered from under the heavy overpaint that not only disguised the old damages, but extended several inches beyond the damages.  The image below shows the careful removal of the extensive fill material from T.C. Steele’s Autumn Landscape, Red Trees, which extended over an area of original paint.

During treatment detail of Autumn Landscape, Red Trees by T.C. Steele

The images below highlight the conservation treatment of T.C. Steele’s Autumn Landscape, Yellow Trees.  The yellowed varnish not only obscured the colors of the painting, but it also flattened out the depth of the composition.  The heavy overpaint throughout the foreground covered the cast shadows the artist used to depict the nearby trees in the landscape.  The overpaint was so heavily and extensively applied, that it even covered the damaged remnants of the artist’s signature.

The conservation treatment of the Wishard murals has been a long and intensive process.  Without this careful work, the murals would not have survived as they do today, for future generations to enjoy.