Visitors to the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego have the rare opportunity to observe conservators working to restore and preserve a fine art masterpiece!
Two expert conservators have been working on François Boucher’s gorgeous Lovers in a Park (1758) in one of the museum galleries, and the public is invited to watch and ask questions on Fridays from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm.
When I swung by the Timken during my Balboa Park walk last weekend, I noted the conservation effort was in Week 18–nearing its end. So you might want to drop by very soon.
Visitors stand at a safe distance from the nearly 8 foot tall French Rococo painting. For almost seven decades Lovers in a Park has been displayed, and with time it has become somewhat discolored.
A sign explains how surface grime has been removed, old varnish has been removed, and there has been a deep grime removal. All the old overpaint has been removed, and a synthetic resin protective varnish has been applied. The current phase of work is inpainting–where colors are matched and areas of paint loss are filled with conservation pigments.
Read more about the Timken Museum of Art’s conservation program here.
On the opposite wall, a large graphic divides the painting into quarters, demonstrating how the canvas was carefully examined before conservation efforts using visible light, ultraviolet light, infrared reflectography, and X-radiography.
Anyone interested in art really should check out this special “interactive” exhibition. You’ll probably learn a lot!
You can read about the Timken’s current exhibitions by clicking here.
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