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Arts & Entertainment

Conservators Take "A Closer Look at George Washington And Other Famous Faces"

Lance Mayer and Gay Myers discuss conservation techniques in reference to many of the famous pieces of artwork they have restored.

George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on December 25, 1776 was an iconic move during the American Revolutionary War. It was immortalized in oil on canvas by German American artist Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze in 1851. The painting itself inspired a 1936 sonnet by David Shulman as well as Alfred Maletsky's 1999 design for the New Jersey state quarter.

The painting, which is now part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, was cleaned and restored by conservators Lance Mayer and Gay Myers. The duo gave a well-attended lecture on Thursday at the home base for their restoration studio at the . This very large painting, which stands at 12 by 20 feet, had not had any conservation work performed on it for 60 years prior to coming into the care of Mayer and Myers. 

The aim of a conservator is to restore a piece of art with as little intervention as possible, so as not to repaint the original work but allow the artist’s original intentions to shine through. Sometimes that’s as simple as removing a layer of grime with a proper solvent; other times it means filling in fine cracks and pinpoint holes that develop over the life of the painting.

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Occasionally a piece arrives so damaged or altered that entire layers of non-original paint need to be removed or large holes need to be filled in where paint was completely scraped off.

The Washington piece was relatively well cared for, with no major pieces missing, but restoration was no easy job. “It was a daunting task,” said Mayer. “In particular you could not make out the morning star which is a very important part of the painting.” The morning star, which seemed to be covered in darkness, not only set the time of day of the event at early morning but symbolized the glimmer of hope during a dark time in the revolution. 

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During restoration they used such techniques as glazing (to make lighter) and scumbling (to make darker) and varnishing, which help protect the painting and allow the full range of lights and darks to be expressed. The result is a beautiful and clear depiction of a moment in our nation’s history representing “hope and courage in the face of adversity.”

Leutze’s famous scene was not the only George Washington piece that Mayer and Myers have worked on. They have also restored portraits by Gilbert Stuart, who was known for using relatively few colors in his pallet and preferring to blend colors directly on the canvas. In one of Stuarts portraits they found that a part of his jacket had become transparent. This is a common problem in the aging process of oil paintings, where the oils lose opacity. Some of the damage was also likely done by an earlier conservator who used too strong of a solvent for cleaning. The problem was solved by darkening the area that had become transparent.

Mayer and Myers have also had the opportunity to restore works by many other famous artists such as John Singleton Copley, Albert Bierstadt, John Singer Sargent and Georgia O’Keeffe, to name a few.  They have just completed a book titled American Painters on Technique: The Colonial Period to 1860 in which they study the techniques and materials used by American master painters. For more information on the Lyman Allyn and their conservators please visit lymanallyn.org.

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