Training in the Conservation of Paintings - Calouste Gulbenkian ...

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2. The Problem Existing provision for the conservation of paintings in the United Kingdom 11. Before the second world war, no art gallery in this country had its own conservation department. Paintings were cleaned and restored as and when the authorities considered it necessary, by independent restorers; and the Weaver Report of 1948 (see paragraphs 14 and 15) mentions that only thirty-two paintings from the National Gallery were cleaned between 1900 and 1933. 12. On the appointment of Mr Kenneth Clark (now Lord Clark) to the National Gallery as Director in 1934, however, the Gallery started a programme of greater activity in cleaning. Mr Ruhemann, who had lately left Germany, was retained on contract, as Consultant Restorer. Mr Rawlins was appointed at the same time, as Scientific Adviser, and an Honorary Scientific Advisory Committee was set up. A few years later, on the outbreak of war, the paintings were removed from London to an air-conditioned store, with a conservation studio, in Wales. The opportunity provided by these conditions, coinciding with the presence in this country, as refugees, of highly skilled restorers from abroad, who had been employed in established conservation departments of major museums, gave a new stimulus to professional interest in the conservation of works of art and encouraged not only the National Gallery but other museums and galleries also to consider seriously setting up their own conservation departments. 13. In 1946, as soon as the war ended and the paintings returned to the National Gallery, its conservation department, as such, was set up. Mr Ruhemann could work only part-time for the National Gallery since he was by then in charge of the newly established technology department of the Courtauld Institute, but he was appointed consultant restorer with a staff consisting of an unestablished restorer and a craftsman. 14. The return of the paintings from their air-conditioned wartime store to the normal climate of the National Gallery raised immediate 13
TRAINING IN THE CONSERVATION OF PAINTINGS problems of environmental control; furthermore, when they were put on view there was lively criticism in The Times correspondence columns of those which had been cleaned. This led to the 'Cleaned Pictures' exhibition of 1947, showing the seventy-four paintings which had been cleaned since 1936 accompanied by appropriate photographs; and to the appointment by the Trustees of a committee of two experts under a lay Chairman to report on the whole question of conservation at the National Gallery. These were: Dr Paul Coremans, head of the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, Brussels, and Mr G. L. Stout, head of the Department of Conservation, Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard, under the chairmanship of Dr R. H. Weaver, President of Trinity College, Oxford. Their report, which has not been published in full, was summarised in an article by the Chairman of the Committee in The Times of 8th May, 1948. 15. Of the recommendations made to the Trustees by the Weaver Committee, those which most concerned the development of the National Gallery's Conservation Department were the following: (a) the installation of air-conditioning to preserve the paintings; (b) close consultation and collaboration between the Conservation and the Scientific Departments, and the provision of facilities for continuous fundamental research; (e) additional staff and other facilities for a permanent Department of Conservation. 16. During the last twenty years or so the importance of conservation has gained general recognition and a number of public museums and galleries have set up and added to their own departments of conservation of paintings and drawings. At the same time, the number of independent restorers, many of whom are highly qualified, and of their clients (who include many public museums and galleries), has also risen. These developments are described in the following notes: i. Conservation and scientific departments in public Institutions (see also Appendix B) (a) National Gallery In 1949, as a result of the Weaver Report, an increased establishment (chief restorer, two restorers, three assistant restorers and a craftsman) was approved for the National Gallery Conservation Department but by 1954 only the chief restorer, Mr Lucas, one restorer, Mr Brommelle, one master craftsman, two craftsmen I and one craftsman II
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Appendix B continued III. SURVEY OF
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Gallery I Museum Bolton: Museum & N
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Gallery I Museum Dundee Art Gallery
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Gallery I Museum Leeds: Temple News
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Gallery \ Museum Swansea : Glynn Vi
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V. SUMMARY: THE FOLLOWING FIGURES H
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Appendix C: Conservation training c
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