AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

While Angels Watched

In February 2022, conservators at the Chrysler Museum began examining and treating Thomas Cole’s monumental, 8’ x 16’ painting, The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, painted in 1834. This treatment was carried out while it remained on view in the American art gallery. Visitors were welcome to watch and ask questions to learn more about conservation, the artist, and 19th-c painting practices.

Thomas Cole was a well-known landscape painter and founder of the New York City-based group of landscapists, the Hudson River School. The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds is Cole's largest canvas-it measures more than eight by fifteen feet-and one of his earliest and most ambitious attempts at historical landscape painting. Though it was completed in just a few short months, he began planning and sketching three years prior during his first trip to Europe.

Shortly after its completion, the mural hung in the Boston Athenaeum. When the building caught fire in 1889, the canvas was taken off the stretcher and rolled without any additional solid support and put into storage, where it remained for decades. A photograph, taken in 1948 when the painting was briefly unrolled, showed the extensive tears, creases, and widespread paint loss incurred in storage. When the painting was restored in the 1970s, the canvas was wax-lined to a new, heavyweight fabric and the losses were filled and retouched.

Although the structural work from the earlier restoration remained stable. The painting was selected for treatment because the synthetic coating applied in the 1970’s had yellowed and darkened significantly and the retouching no longer matched. Many of the details of the composition were obscured. The challenge being that it is not only one of the largest paintings in the collection but also the most badly damaged, which would become apparent as the treatment proceeded.

Conservators thoroughly examined and documented the painting to better understand the materials used by the artist and how it was painted. Technical examination included cross sectional analysis, ultraviolet, infrared and X-ray florescence. This provided valuable insights into the condition and structure of the paint layers and revealed the artist’s compositional changes.

After extensive testing less toxic solvents were chosen to remove the discolored coatings and retouching. A layer of B72 acrylic resin varnish in Shellsol A100 was applied to the surface by brush. Losses were filled with a wax resin material which could be embossed with canvas texture using heated spatulas and silicone molds. Final retouching was carried out with Gamblin aldehyde paints.

Although it was a huge undertaking, requiring hundreds of hours, the results were quite rewarding. The collaboration between our team of conservators proved effective at problem solving throughout every step of the process. Interacting with the public gave us the opportunity to share our work and to engage with visitors in a direct and meaningful way.