Rembrandt and His School: Masterworks from the Frick and
Lugt Collections
February 15, 2011, through May 15, 2011
See a Virtual Tour of the paintings in the Oval Room.
The Cleaning of Rembrandt's Self-Portrait, 1658
Dorothy Mahon, Conservator, Department of Paintings Conservation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Overview | X-Radiograph | Rembrandt's Technique | Condition | Cleaning
Rembrandt van Rijn is highly admired for creating paintings that are unsurpassed in achieving superb depth and translucency. This quality, however, can be compromised by layers of old varnish, which, as these coatings age and degrade, result in a dull and flat appearance. For this reason Rembrandt's Self-Portrait of 1658, his largest self-portrait and surely among the best of its type, called out for attention. Not cleaned in more than sixty years, the numerous varnish layers applied in the intervening period had contributed to a regrettable visual diminishment of the picture's appearance. The Frick's curatorial files indicate that the painting had been varnished and re-varnished at least nine times since its last cleaning in 1948. These multiple superficial treatments were no doubt performed to refresh and regenerate the surface as previously applied varnish layers began to degrade and lose clarity. While this conservative approach is a good preservation policy, eventually the time arrives when it becomes necessary to remove what has become an enormously obscuring accumulation of varnish.
A thorough examination of the painting was carried out before starting the most recent treatment, which took place at The Metropolitan Museum of Art between September 2010 and January 2011. During all stages of the investigation, Colin B. Bailey, Associate Director and Chief Curator of The Frick Collection, was keenly involved in discussions leading to the decision to proceed with the treatment.
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