Art restoration uncovers previous
retouching
by SARAH VAUGHN, staff writer
“Historic
Paintings Returned to SPC After Restoration”
Two historic
paintings from South Plains College’s Marjorie M. Post Art
Collection recently underwent extensive restorations,
restoring the portraits to museum quality.
Grants from the
CH Foundation and the Helen Jones Foundation funded the
restoration. The paintings, Granville, 2nd Earl
of Gower, and Caroline, Queen of George II, were shipped to
Austin-based Conservator Mark Van Gelder and were returned
in October.
“Mr. Van Gelder
works a lot with the portraits in the capitol,” said Stephen
John, vice president for institutional advancement. “We felt
like he had the credentials necessary to work on these two
paintings.”
Van Gelder
received the paintings during the first week of May and
began the restoration process. As he worked on the
paintings, two significant things were uncovered about the
Caroline painting.
According to
John, when Post purchased the Caroline painting at auction,
the portrait had been attributed to Allan Ramsay, but with a
question mark beside his name. Van Gelder discovered on the
wooden ‘stretcher’ frame of the painting, attribution to
another artist from that time period.
“[Van Gelder]
found an old, hand-written label that had faded so much,
that it was almost unreadable,” said John. “And it was in a
penmanship for a script that could have been late 18th
century, early 19th century. Also, the ink that
was used was very common for that period of time. Using
ultraviolet and infrared photography, he was able to discern
what the label said, and the label attributes the painting
to Sir Godfrey Kneller, who was the court painter from
Charles II to George II.”
Van Gelder
described the second important discovery on the Caroline
painting as the subject of the painting being
‘Barbie-dolled.’ The painting had been retouched, not only
changing the color of the curtains in the background, but
also creating a ‘prettier’ portrait, possibly in an attempt
to raise the selling price.
“She was made to
look prettier than what she was,” said John. “There was
shading under her chin to get rid of a pronounced
double-chin.”
The tip of a shoe
had also been added to the painting, peaking out from under
the hem of Caroline’s gown. John said that at that time, it
was a common compositional element that artists used to make
their subjects appear taller, and in this case, probably
more slender.
“What emerged was
someone that looked a lot different than what was in the
previous picture,” said John, “but that was clearly an image
of a much younger Caroline. ”
The college has
plans to restore all eight of the pieces in the Post
collection, and has already sent a third painting, Flemish
Countryside, to a conservator for work.
“We did the two
royals [first] because they’re the finest two pieces in the
collection, and we didn’t want them to be gone longer than
they had to be,” said Ippy Greer, Post Collection curator at
SPC. “The Dutch piece [Flemish Countryside] was by far in
the worst condition.”
Greer explained
that Flemish Countryside is a large painting, measuring
approximately 12 feet by 10 feet, and to ship the painting
required it to be placed within a specialized shipping
frame.
“I expect it will
take at least a year, because it is in such bad condition,”
said Greer. “And those things cannot be hurried. They
literally work one square inch at a time to do this whole
piece. So when it comes back, it’s going to be transformed.
I’m really very curious to see what it’s going to look like,
because it’s seen some real rough times.”
The Post
Collection has been an important part of the college for
about 40 years. Prior to the renovations of the Fine Arts
Building, the paintings had never been shown together. They
had been scattered in various locations on campus.
When SPC first
received the paintings, during the 1960s, the two royals and
the Bacchanalian Feast were placed in the foyer of the
Library. At the time, smoking was allowed in the foyer, and
the paintings were not protected behind glass.
“Things were even
splashed on the pieces,” said Greer. “They clearly didn’t
understand what they had.”
The Post
Collection was last valued at $300,000 in 2006, but as a
result of the recent renovations, especially in light of the
discovery that Caroline’s painter is probably Kneller, the
collection will most likely receive a higher value when
reappraised.
Jon Johnson, who
served as chairperson of the Fine Arts Department from 1988
to 2009, said that the college began looking at restoration
about three years ago when an art restorer viewed the pieces
and determined they were very discolored. Around the same
time, a student editor on the Plainsman Press staff, Ruth
Bradley, wrote an article, that Johnson said refocused
attention on the paintings.
“It called
attention to the collection,” said Johnson, “where it had
come from, and it ran just prior to the planning stages of
the renovations [to the Fine Arts Building].”
Johnson said that
he hopes that in the future more of the history of the
paintings can be revealed, in addition to the restorations
of the works.
“I think we’re going to try to get an art historian to look
at them,” said Johnson. “There are some questions about who
the paintings are attributed to.”
