Walk to work at the American Legion National Headquarters.

Another amazing glimpse into the history of this project was through the incredible collection of letters and archival material that has been preserved since the early 1900’s.  I was privy to primary source materials written directly by Reni-Mel and various officials of the legion, including rare footage of the artist painting America in his studio in France.

Now onto the project:  The painting, America, was created in 1918 by the French Ministry of War Painter, Léon Reni-Mel, and given to the American Legion for the United States’ assistance to France during the Great World War.  The canvas is 12’ x 7’ and depicts two allegorical soldiers, one stalwart American raising his hand to halt the enemy while assisting the other, a wounded Frenchman about to collapse.  The soldiers stand on a bank of highly textured mud with smoke and flames rising around them in the distance, blending slowly into the swirling colors of the sky.  At the bottom of the canvas, Reni-Mel gave the work its own caption, AMERICA, flanked by the signatures of two honorary National Commanders, General John Pershing of the United States Army and Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the French Minister of War.  Reni-Mel’s signature and the date of completion were also added at the lower left and right.  The painting has very high impasto, giving the work incredible texture and depth, but making the cleaning process even more challenging!

Detail of textural, high impasto paint surface.

Upon first sight, it was obvious that the painting was covered with a thick coating of darkened yellow varnish.  A quick glance at the meeting hall and the sea of desks topped with permanently affixed ashtrays gave the clear indication that this painting was dulled by decades of nicotine, grime, and aged varnish.  Upon closer investigation, it was also apparent that there had been a previous campaign of cleaning.  Throughout the sky and areas of the French soldier’s face and torso, the paint had been scrubbed so hard that in some areas the weave of the canvas was clearly visible. The note card attached to the stretcher bars confirmed the previous restoration treatment (done in the ’90s) and even detailed the type of varnish used at that time to coat it.  Even with all this observed knowledge, a thorough bout of solvent testing was done in multiple areas to find the most effective and safest cleaning solutions for this painting.

Detail of abraded paint from previous cleaning treatment.

And so our slow siege began, moving across the canvas inch by inch, adjusting solvents and changing application techniques to suit each specific area.  As we worked our way across the complex surface, I began to understand how one must constantly be reading what you see, know how to react to the given information, and be able to move forward even when that means leaving it alone.  The difference between the cleaned painting and the grimy, varnish-covered painting was so dramatic that staff members from down the hall were continually seeing aspects of the composition for the first time as had originally been intended!

During treatment, about halfway through cleaning and varnish reduction.

In the archives I came across a letter from Reni-Mel, himself, warning the recipients to allow the thick paint to dry for at least a year before varnishing (with the amount of paint he used – it should have been much longer).  This is done so there will be two separate layers (varnish on top of paint) instead of two layers without any distinct boundary between them (which is what happens when the paint isn’t fully dry).  This co-mingled area is referred to as the “interactive zone,” and can be quite the challenge for conservators since we would like to remove the varnish, but obviously not the paint.  I suspect this is what caused the previous cleaning to come to a halt when only partially complete, leaving the lower two thirds of the surface untouched before adding yet another coating of varnish overall.

I am happy to report that after about 200 hours of work, the conservation project is at mid-stage with the painting having been successfully cleaned and the discolored varnish substantially reduced.  Because of the blending between the paint and the initial varnish, it was best to “unpack” the varnish little by little until only a thin coating remained and the paint film was left with a protective buffering layer.  This delicate balance was maintained with close and constant observation, an understanding of the surface of the painting, and daily examination in ultraviolet light.

Next up, we’ll be moving on to the structural work, inpainting and varnishing, as well as the framing and re-installation of America…check back at the Indianapolis Museum of Art blog for the next chapter!  Also, look for an article at the American Legion webpage for more information regarding this great project.

After cleaning, me, Christina, and Linda (left to right).

That cloak is the relic venerated today in a church built on the hill of Tepeyac, outside Mexico City, where Mary originally appeared to Juan Diego.  Her protection of the diverse populations of Mexico—Indians and creoles, rich and poor—lead to fervent devotion, and Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe remains a potent symbol of Mexican identity and culture even today.

The IMA is proud to highlight an important recent acquisition featuring the Virgin of Guadalupe. The painting was created in Mexico around 1700, and copies the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe as she appears on the relic of Juan Diego’s cloak. The central image of the Virgin is embellished by symbolic elements and by narrative scenes in the four corners that illustrate her four appearances to Juan Diego.

The IMA’s Virgin of Guadalupe was also featured in a pair of ArtBabble videos: a conversation between IMA director Maxwell Anderson and curator Ronda Kasl about the painting’s history, and conservator Christina O’Connell’s discussion of its conservation treatment. See the videos below and learn more about this tremendous work.

Love this work? You can come see it in celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Feast Day this weekend. The painting is prominently displayed in the gallery, just in front of the elevators on the museum’s second floor, directly off Pulliam Great Hall.

Here is the painting in all its glory in the IMA’s Early American galleries. So what went on behind the scenes to get it here? About 85 hours of careful conservation work.

The painting installed in the IMA’s Early American Galleries.

Conservation work always begins with a thorough examination. A conservator has to understand the layers of the materials that comprise the painting, and have an understanding of how those materials age and what sort of damage, if any, they incurred. In short, the examination breaks down the construction and condition for all the layers that make up the painting. Paintings are composite objects and include a variety of materials. For traditional oil paintings, these include a fabric support mounted to an auxiliary wooden stretcher or strainer, a ground or preparatory layer, paint layers, and a varnish layer.

The painting before treatment. The colors look muted and hazy under heavy layers of dirt, soot, and discolored varnish.

Raking light image before treatment. The painting had large planar distortions in the canvas and the there were prominent mechanical cracks in the ground and paint layers.

Once the examination was complete, the first step was to address any structural issues. In the case of Roesen’s Still Life, there was a small tear in the canvas and there were some areas where the paint was actively flaking and several cracks in the paint that were unstable. The importance of addressing structural concerns is quite simple: you want to prevent further damage to the object.

Stabilization, or consolidation, involves the application of an adhesive to the areas of flaking or insecure paint. This is often done by adding the adhesive to the specific area with a small brush. The adhesive chosen depends on a great number of factors including the original materials for the painting, the strength of the adhesive, what solvent is necessary for the adhesive, and whether or not the adhesive needs to be heated during or after application, to name a few.

Once a painting is stable, the treatment stages that have a more aesthetic impact can be carried out. For the Roesen, this stage of treatment began with the removal of dirt and soot from the varnished surface of the painting. This was done with an aqueous solution with a slightly elevated pH that had the addition of chelators (that’s where the coursework in chemistry comes in handy).

After stabilizing any areas of flaking paint, the heavy layers of dirt and soot were removed from the surface of the varnished painting. Look how bright the red flowers appear once the dirt is removed.

Once the dirt and soot were removed, I was able to then remove the discolored natural resin varnish. This was done with a mixture of organic solvents that were selected after careful testing. Here, I’d like to recount that importance of that initial examination. The understanding of what the materials are that comprise the painting is paramount when carrying out a conservation treatment.

The visual effects that the layers of dirt and discolored varnish have on the appearance of the painting are quite dramatic.  Those darkened and hazy layer not only affect the colors, but the tonal balance as well.  The yellowed varnish made the painting appear very flat.  This is especially noticeable in the pink flowers, as you can see in the images below.

After the heavy dirt and soot were cleaned, the yellowed varnish was removed subtle details and nuances of color could once again be appreciated.

The visual effects that the yellowed varnish had on the artist’s palette were quite profound. In this image, you can see some of the pink roses cleaned and compare them to one that still has its varnish (in the lower left). After the varnish is removed, you can see the cool undertones and a translucency to the soft petals.

After the layers of dirt, soot, and discolored varnish were removed, it was time to address those large undulation distortions in the canvas. This was done with controlled, local humidification. But first, the painting needed to temporarily be taken off its stretcher.

Here the painting is temporarily taken off its stretcher so that the large, undulating distortions could be reduced.

One of the common problems that cause bulges and distortions in the canvas is dirt and debris that becomes trapped between the stretcher bars and the canvas.  Roesen’s Still Life was no exception. In fact, you can see what was behind the stretcher in the image below.

Trapped beneath the stretcher and the canvas, along the bottom of the painting, there was an accumulation of dirt, dust, and debris. In this case, there were wings and casings from bugs (dead long ago) and bits of dried evergreen (probably from decorative greenery hung near the painting when it was still in a private collection).

Debris, such as the organic materials found behind the stretcher on the Roesen, is very reactive to moisture.  If exposed to high humidity, these materials will hold moisture for a long time, which can cause further distortions in the canvas and lead to cracking and flaking paint.

The dirt, dust, and debris were vacuumed from the back of the painting.

The dirt and debris were vacuumed from the reverse of the painting. After the vacuuming was complete, the localized humidity was carried out to remove the distortions. The distortions can have an effect on the structural stability of the many layers comprising the painting, but it also has a visual impact. The bulges can cast shadows and distort the spatial depth of the composition. Once the distortions were removed, the painting was re-stretched back onto its original stretcher.

After the application of a new coating of varnish, the compensation began. The painting was in relatively good condition. The areas that needed visual reintegration included the small tear in the lower left and areas where there were prominent cracks in the paint.  There were small losses of paint surrounding the tear. These areas had to be filled to adjust the depth of the missing paint and ground. The fills are textured to match the surface of the surrounding original paint.

In this image, the prominent cracks in the paint appear as light-colored lines in the blue flower bud and just below the bud. The lines appear lighter because you can see the ground or preparatory layer in the crack.

Inpainting is carried out with stable conservation colors and a very small brush. This stage of treatment is approached so that the materials and technique make the inpainting reversible. This is done mainly for ethical reasons, as highlighted in the AIC’s code of ethics and guidelines for practice. When inpainting, color is added only where the original is missing or damaged.

In this image you can see the process of inpainting, where new, stable colors are added only to areas where the original is damaged or missing.

For reference, here’s the painting again before treatment.

Here is the painting after treatment. By comparison to the image taken before treatment, the painting has more vibrant colors, the subtlety and details are legible once again, and the spatial depth is much improved.

The treatment produced wonderful results, both structurally and visually. The cracked and flaking paint was secured and the undulation distortions in the canvas were reduced, making the painting stable structurally. So much original vibrancy and detail were reveal by removing the discoloring layers of dirt and yellowed varnish. Now the painting can be safely displayed and thoroughly enjoyed by our visitors.

Special thanks again to Conner Prairie for their long-term loan of this painting.

Click here to see the first conservation blog post about this treatment.

Simply put, what I like most about my job is that I get to look at works of art. I probably spend more time looking in one week than most people do in a whole year. When I’m looking, I always start with trying to figure out from what and how a work is made. For me, these are the most interesting questions to investigate. If you can’t put together at least some rough answers, then you really can’t make any further assumptions (art historical or otherwise), and you’re certainly not going to be in a good position to make good conservation decisions.

I rarely ever get to the question of whether or not I like an artwork; in conservation, answering that question doesn’t really get me anywhere.

This week I’ve had the exceptional opportunity to look at a rare corner cabinet with carvings by Emile Bernard. This cabinet is one of only four known examples produced by the Pont-Aven School (one is at the Norton Simon, one is at the AIC, and the other in Paris). It made quite a big splash when we acquired it this year.

In an effort to better understand the construction of the cabinet, I’m working alongside the IMA’s Pont-Aven specialist, Ellen Lee, The Wood-Pulliam Senior Curator, and Jérôme Séré, ebéniste restaurateur de mobilier (cabinetmaker and furniture restoration specialist) who specializes in this type of cabinetry.

We’ve started our technical examination of the piece by measuring and inspecting each element, and then making radiographs of certain joins, and finally producing IRR images to look for under drawings. The IMA’s New Media folks were down in the lab yesterday to make a video about the work, so stay tuned for that. Also, the cabinet will be featured in the forthcoming IMA Magazine.

But today, I want to share a few sneak peaks of our work.  Here are some digital radiographic images I produced yesterday that show the refined joinery of the cabinet and the hardware used to make the cabinet doors swing open.

Bernard Corner Cabinet, Lowest Section, Top Proper Left

Bernard Corner Cabinet, Lowest Section, Bottom Proper Left

Image Courtesy of the Tacoma Art Museum

Painted around 1786, it’s a luminous, bucolic little scene- that holds its own next to J.M.W. Turner’s powerful and dramatic The Fifth Plague of Egypt from our permanent collection (recently returned from New Orleans Museum of Art). Having the Gainsborough from Tacoma to compare with paintings by Turner, Benjamin West, and Richard Wilson creates a new experience of the IMA’s holdings in late eighteenth-century English landscape painting. The painting will be here until June 2011.

The painting may look like it was painted directly from nature, but Gainsborough created his landscapes in the studio, working on them in the evenings after his portrait sitters had gone. He certainly used sketches made outdoors to help compose his paintings, but he also built little landscape tableaux in the studio to lay out his compositions. Discussing Gainsborough’s working practice, his rival Joshua Reynolds reported that “from the fields he brought into his painting-room stumps of trees, weeds, and animals of various kinds; and designed them, not from memory, but immediately from the objects. He even framed a kind of model from landscapes on his table; composed of broken stones, dried herbs, and pieces of looking glass, which he magnified and improved into rocks, trees and water.” This process-oriented approach to landscape painting was typical of Gainsborough.  Another landscape by Gainsborough in the IMA’s permanent collection is an example of what the artist called a “varnished watercolor,” created in mixed media that includes white lead, ink, gouache, milk, and glue on several pieces of paper joined together and mounted on canvas.  The painting, on view in the balcony of the Clowes Pavilion, has the appearance of a drawing, thanks to the rapid execution and the flickering highlights.

Gainsborough may have made his name as a society portrait painter, but he found real joy in landscape painting. Because of his fame as a portraitist, it’s somewhat surprising to realize that Gainsborough could apparently be rather half-hearted about the business of portrait painting.  He himself admitted that he sometime found it tedious to crank out the portraits his clients demanded and wished that “the People with their damn’d Faces could but let me alone a little.”  In a letter he declared, “I’m sick of Portraits and wish very much to take my Viol de Gamba and walk off to some sweet Village when I can paint Landskips and enjoy the fag End of Life in quietness and ease.”

Gainsborough was a rather temperamental character who had very strong opinions about how his work should be displayed.  In fact, he eventually broke his ties with the Royal Academy after a dispute over how his paintings should be installed in their galleries—he preferred that they be hung higher on the wall so that the his broadly painted style could be fully appreciated. In a huff, he pulled his paintings from the Academy’s annual exhibition and began displaying his work in his studio, where he could hang his paintings as he pleased. The painting on loan from Tacoma is one of seven landscapes that Gainsborough exhibited in his London home, Schomberg House, in April of 1786.

As artists, we rely on our senses to create our forms of expression.  Many might consider sight the most important. For John Bramblitt, it’s the least.

image courtesy of bramblitt.net

Before John lost his sight, he didn’t spend much time thinking about painting.  He said, “I had thought about painting before, and it might be horrible to say, but I didn’t think I’d be good at it. When I lost my sight, I thought, if I’m not good at it, I’m not going to be able to look at it anyway, so why not give it a try.”

Painting was calming for John.  He lost his sight to epilepsy, which left him angry and frustrated.  John said, “Had I not lost my sight, I might never have picked up a paintbrush.”

John has developed a process that allows him to paint by touch.  The only difference is that instead of using his eyes to differentiate colors, he uses his fingertips.

image courtesy of bramblitt.net

John will be in Indianapolis on July 29^th to speak at the 2010 Statewide Assistive Technology Conference.  He will conduct a hands-on workshop, where he will instruct people on what it is like to paint from his perspective.

For more information on the event, go here. To learn more about John and his process of painting, visit John’s site.

The Pharmacy prescribes the following links to combat Monday online anemia.

The Selby

Blog: The Selby

The Selby is full of uber-cool photographs of creative people in their living spaces, taken by photographer Todd Selby. (via timesonline.co.uk)

ArtBabble Video: Director’s Journal: 100 Acres Visitor’s Pavilion

Learn about current IMA events with Melvin and Bren Simon Director and CEO Maxwell Anderson. This episode features a conversation with 100 Acres Project Manager Dave Hunt and architect Marlon Blackwell about the Art and Nature Park Visitor’s Pavilion. Listen in as they discuss how the pavilion was constructed and what it will offer to visitors of the park.

IMA Work of Art:

Père Biart Reading in the Garden

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erikajoy:  Twitter experiment. Indianapolis Museum of Art bloggers…are you on twitter? I love your blog http://www.imamuseum.org/blog

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The IMA rarely has the luxury of reframing the paintings in its collection, since funds to pay for new frames are not readily available. A frame is an important part of a painting that serves not only to enhance the image but also to protect it.  Several paintings at the IMA have unsuitable frames that do nothing to enhance the beauty of the work and may actually detract from it.  One of those paintings is Abbott Thayer’s 1886 Still Life, a simple but lush depiction of a peony in a pewter-lined copper bowl.  This spare but dramatic still life was in a deteriorating reproduction frame that had a negative affect on the painting.

Last year the work appeared in the exhibition American Art and the East at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.  It was seen by Eli Wilner, a leading frame dealer and restorer, who noticed that the frame did not show the painting to its best advantage.  Mr. Wilner contacted the IMA and made a proposal to reframe the painting for a minimal payment from the museum.  The IMA was being given the opportunity to obtain a museum quality frame that we would not have been able to purchase if Mr. Wilner had not offered to donate most of its cost.

A comparison of Thayer’s still life before and after reframing shows a stunning transformation in the presentation of the painting.  It is now surrounded by a frame that resembles those of the period in which it was created and one that brings out the beauty of the image.  Mr. Wilner has offered to help the IMA reframe additional paintings with his support, so we are hoping that we will be able to take advantage of this very generous offer in the future.

The next time you are visiting the IMA come to the American galleries and see the Abbott Thayer still life in its new frame and experience what the appropriate frame can do for a painting.

It’s things like this that remind me how lucky I am to work where I do. How many workplaces do you know that have a talent show!? You won’t see this in any of our galleries, at least not anytime soon, but it’s all amazing stuff!

These are all photos I took on my iPhone (hence the shady quality) of artworks brought in to our in-house talent show. The festival took place on Monday, May 18th, 2009. Enjoy…

Heather Hudson - Artwork

Pat Williamson - Paintings & Drawings

Gary Hutchison - Photographs & 2D Art

Jeff Julius - WWII Ships from Recycled Materials

Lindsay Lord - Handbags & Totes

Mary Schnellbacher

Matt Warner - Drawings, Painting & Photographs

Phil Hughes - Paintings & Pewter Miniatures

Joseph Vasquez - Fine Art Prints

John Todd - Ceramics

Carol White - Jewelry & Metalsmithing

Len Bibeau - Painting & Prints

I’ve tried to caption these things as best as I can, but surely I’ve made a mistake or two… please, feel free to chime in and talk about your art if I’ve featured it here (or if I missed you… it was not intentional, I promise!).

I should also mention, there was a performance part to the talent show, but photos won’t do much justice. People performed songs, and performed them amazingly well I must say! Maybe one day we’ll see a clip or two pop up on the internet… if so I’ll add those to the post.

"Portrait of James Whitcomb Riley" by John Singer Sargent

Within the first week of my internship, I made two exciting discoveries here at the IMA. One was The Prado in Google Earth and the other, which I found upstairs in the American Galleries was the John Singer Sargent painting, Portrait of James Whitcomb Riley.

For those who aren’t already familiar, The Prado Museum and Google Earth have teamed up to create an interactive site for the museum, which can be accessed on the internet through Google Earth. The application creates a 3D view of the museum and incredibly detailed imagery of 14 masterpieces found in the museum, including works by Velasquez, Rubens, and Rembrandt, and Goya. According to the Associated Press article, the project involved 8,200 photographs of the works and an assumedly hefty bill (footed by Google).

The end product allows a viewer to zoom in on an image made up of 14 billion pixels. According to Google, that’s 1,400 times more detailed than the image a 10 megapixel camera could take – it’s quite remarkable. I watched the trailer for the project and was amazed. As one observer noted, you can actually see what appears to be a blemish painted on the rump of a women in the Rubens’ painting, The Three Graces. From what I can remember of Rubens in my art history classes, such an addition would be typical of his humor. I downloaded Google Earth at home in hopes of exploring the paintings beyond what the trailer shows, but unfortunately, my computer couldn’t handle the navigation very well, and I was left slightly frustrated. Hopefully your computer is faster.

So, how does this relate to discovery number 2? – Portrait of James Whitcomb Riley

I have recently read several posts, both on the IMA Blog and on other blogs, that discuss the use of technology in museums. The Prado in Google Earth raises the question: Can digital imagery ever replace the real deal? Would it matter if every museum offered all of their works in a manner similar to the 14 offered by Google Earth from The Prado? Would patrons stop entering the galleries and opt for the computer based imagery?

John Singer Sargent leads me to my answer.
Can technology replace the real deal? No.
Why? Brushstrokes.

I was a painting major in my undergraduate studies at DePauw University, and John Singer Sargent is my favorite painter. I studied his technique, I wrote papers on him, and I tried painting like him. My infatuation with this artist is founded upon his brushstrokes.

My painting professor adamantly told me that a painter should always paint from life, as Sargent most always did. He would say, “Painting from a picture will flatten your image and your painting will not have the same effect as it would if you were to paint from life.” For me, Google Earth has the same effect on a painting. I want to see the brushstrokes in person, in 3D space – not on a computer screen. (Google calls it 3D, but it’s not the same…)

My point here is that no matter how cool The Prado in Google Earth is, no matter how close the computers can zoom in on the brushstrokes, (at this point you might have to check it out to really know what I mean), I am always going to want to see the real thing. Yes, Google offers me the chance to zoom in on brushstrokes in a way that my own eyes would not allow me to do but that, for me, will never replace the intimacy of viewing the actual canvass on which the paint was applied. As Prado Director Miguel Zagaza says, “What we don’t see is the soul. The soul will always only be seen by contemplating the original.”

"Lady Agnew of Lochnaw" by John Singer Sargent

This is why I will one day travel to the National Galleries of Scotland, where my favorite Sargent painting, Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, hangs.