The STaTe hermiTage muSeum annual reporT

eSToraTion and conServaTion
In 2010, the Department of Scientific Restoration
and Conservation (headed by T. Baranova)
restored 4,648 cultural and artistic objects
Including:
easel paintings 682
graphic works 287
sculptures 81
objects of applied art 702
numismatic objects 116
archaeological artifacts 1,973
arms and armoury 213
documents, rare books 47
mounted works 547
laBoraTory for ScienTific reSToraTion
of eaSel painTing
Headed by V. Korobov
George Dawe. Portrait of Empress Alexandra with Her Children.
After restoration
george dawe
poRTRaiT of empRess aleXandRa
wiTh heR childRen
Oil on canvas. 277 × 187 cm
Restored by V. Brovkin, A. Nikolsky
The painting spent several decades rolled up with other canvases
in the storage area of the State Hermitage, and was only admitted
for restoration at the end of 2008. The painting looked much older
than its real age: the varnish was dark and patchy, there were many
overpaintings along the whole surface, and the size of the canvas had
been altered. The conservation and restoration work started in the
autumn of 2008. An examination of the painting revealed that it had
been transferred to a different canvas, with additions on three sides:
c. 14 cm on top, and 3.5 cm on both sides. There also were restoration
retouchings along the whole surface, which had changed colour, and
a dark yellow layer of surface varnish – both typical for paintings which
had their original canvas replaced by a new one in the 19th century.
George Dawe. Portrait of Empress Alexandra with Her Children (detail: before restoration; during restoration; after restoration)
The technical restoration involved making a new stretcher, straightening
and patching the painting, adding canvas conservation hems
to help keep it in place on the new stretcher. This removed the decrepit
canvas in the corners and rectified the deformities. The restoration
of the painting itself started with the cleaning of test areas
from varnish and overpainting. The painting and its structure was
studied and described in detail.
The opaque layer of yellow varnish with dark retouching was removed
by application of a 1:4 alcohol: pinene solution and tools
such as a brush, a cotton wool pad and a scalpel. As a result, among
other things, the colour of the dress changed from dirty green to
dark blue, while the colour of the canopy changed from brown to
dark red-wine colour. A thinner layer of varnish was re-applied to the
whole surface with the help of ethanol vapours (Pettenkofer process).
The painting was covered with a thin layer of megilp, and the
losses were filled in with oil paints with microscopic precision.
Now a formerly lost painting by Dawe, Portrait of Empress Alexandra
with Her Children, will occupy its rightful place in the museum gallery
as a splendid example of the wonderful English portrait painter’s
mature work.
The first versions of the portrait of Emperor Nicholas I and Empress
Alexandra with their children were transferred in 1846 to the Romanov
Family Gallery from the Nicholas (Anichkov) Palace, which
probably led to their restoration and enlargement (which may be
linked to the architectural designs for a new gallery and the preparation
of new wall finishing and new frames). Transferring paintings
to a new canvas in order to enlarge the picture was normal practice
for nineteenth-century Russian restorers. It allowed them to avoid
deformities inevitable when restoration painting was joined to the
original layers. The reverse side of the new canvas would still bear
the name of the artist along with the place and date of completion.
Our canvas, however, does not have such an inscription, and only
the number 460 bears testimony to the fact that the portrait was
included in the inventory of the Nicholas Palace. It is logical to suppose
that the complex restoration was carried out between 1846 and
1855. Thus, the size of the painting was altered in the 19th century,
making the picture 15 cm higher. It is interesting that the author’s
copies of the portraits of Nicholas and Alexandra are 262 cm high,
which corresponds to the original size of the painting in question.
Thus, it was possible to determine that:
restoratIon anD conserVatIon
– the size of the portrait was enlarged to fit that of the companion
portrait of Nicholas I, and this was done during the nineteenthcentury
restoration;
– the restoration (transferral to a new canvas and altering the size)
took place after the artist’s original copies of both portraits were made,
in the middle of the 19th century but preceding the 1855 inventory
of the Nicholas Palace when the portrait was recorded as No 460;
– the additional pieces of canvas are not original; the colour scheme,
texture and foundation are different from those in the original
painting.
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