10/10/2024
In the textile conservation lab, a three-piece 1890s cotton muslin ensemble arrived for treatment!
10/3/2024
The dark grime on its surface is thick and unevenly embedded in the layers of a degraded wax coating.
9/26/2024
After a very close and extended examination by our conservator , it seems certain Madonna and Child was originally part of an Italian Renaissance altarpiece.
9/18/2024
You ever have had a project lingering around your house or work that just … bugs you? A thing that needs to be done if only someone would just DO it? This bodice was one of those projects!
8/29/2024
A few weeks ago, we posted about cleaning this landscape painting by British artist John Constable (1776–1837). The conservation treatment proceeded as quickly as we expected.
8/22/2024
Denison Museum at Denison University (Granville, Ohio) will show nine Cincinnati Art Museum pieces in different media from August 29 to November 29, 2024, in their exhibition Portraying Identity .
8/8/2024
This week in objects conservation, we are cleaning marble.
8/1/2024
We brought this lovely landscape, Waterloo Bridge by British artist John Constable (1776-1837), into the conservation lab to be examined for the British catalog project. Not conserved for more than 60 years, the painting’s varnish is now noticeably yellow.
7/25/2024
One of Bellow’s larger lithographs, Introducing John L. Sullivan, is torn in places along its right side; these tears could worsen with handling if not mended.
7/18/2024
Wanting to do a little more analysis of this piece, I took the jacket back to the museum’s Conservation lab and created a toile, which is like a test version of a pattern used to study and perfect how an original flat pattern works.
7/11/2024
This pair of art deco lamps, designed by Joseph Urban, was last on view in 2022 as part of the exhibition Unlocking an Art Deco Bedroom by Joseph Urban.
7/4/2024
A few weeks ago, two scientists from the Center for Archaeometry & Art Research Palatinate (CAAP) in Germany spent the morning in one of our European galleries to analyze Toilette of Venus, a painting by French artist Simon Vouet (1590–1649).
6/20/2024
It was time for the ladderback chairs in Gallery 218 to get a refresh! The chairs’ silk upholstery wasn’t original and over the years, while on display, the fabric had grown dingy and stained. Curator of Decorative Arts & Design Amy Dehan selected some appropriate, modern fabric in consultation with me, and I recovered the seats!
5/23/2024
Remember the blue dress from a few weeks ago? This week she’s back—with a secret.
5/9/2024
Boy with Grapes, by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), is the 45th painting examined in the paintings conservation lab over the last eighteen months, for the British catalog project.
4/25/2024
This week in the textile conservation lab, I am working on a day dress dating to the 1910s. It has a very delicate silk net stand-up collar edged with a metal ribbon and stiffened with wire stays.
4/18/2024
In our last post about the Miss Mariko Okinawa doll’s tea set, we discussed re-joining all of the tiny ceramic fragments.
3/14/2024
As paintings conservators, we may use chemicals, but we certainly don’t give facials.
3/7/2024
Two prints by Willim Hentschel came through the paper lab with old hinges and pressure sensitive tapes. The artist’s work is unlike any other in the collection.
2/29/2024
These elegant pale blue kid leather shoes came to the lab for a new storage tray and interior padding, but they are interesting because they bear tell-tale damage from a specific collection pest: silverfish.
2/22/2024
This week in objects conservation, we are working on several pieces of micromosaic jewelry made in Italy during the late-19th century.
2/15/2024
Last month, three Northwestern scientists brought their highly specialized scanning and imaging equipment to the museum and spent a week in our Paintings/Objects lab.
2/1/2024
Something is afoot with these shoes! Can you put your finger (or toe) on the difference?
1/25/2024
This iridescent green shade came to the lab in a box of fragments. Piece by piece, I built the individual fragments back into a shade.
1/18/2024
This visitor favorite, Girl Eating Porridge, by French artist Adolphe William Bouguereau (1825–1905), was acquired by the museum in 1884, a mere ten years after the artist painted it.
1/11/2024
In my post of November 30, I promised to explain what it took to improve the appearance and the mechanical condition of Emil Klauprecht’s 1830s lithograph, Galt House.
1/4/2024
Check out some small wonders from the world of textile artwork!
12/28/2023
These tiny ceramic fragments are part of a Japanese doll’s tea set. I am working on putting these pieces back together so that they can be displayed with their doll in the future.
12/7/2023
This small painting by American artist Julian Alden Weir (1852–1919) was donated to the museum by the artist in 1911.
11/30/2023
At first glance it is obvious the print has had a rough life.