To kick off the new year, we held an art competition amongst our talented staff this January. Creations were submitted and after our vote, we are proud to share the winning entry from Associate Paintings Conservator Rebecca Vodehnal, the runner-up entry by Senior Conservation Framer Scott Dietrich. Cheers to 2023!
The Conservation Center is excited to return to THE INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION OF CONTEMPORARY & MODERN ART for our 9th year. EXPO CHICAGO returns for a four-day event (April 7 - 10) taking place at historic Navy Pier, featuring more than 140 of the world’s leading art galleries from 16 countries. This fair draws visitors from all over and continues to demonstrate Chicago as an important destination in the art world. As we have for the past nine years, The Center is proud to serve as EXPO CHICAGO’s exclusive art conservation and custom framing provider. Our conservators will also be on-call and on-site to assist dealers and galleries whose pieces have sustained damage related to transportation and handling.
Portrait painting is a form of art practiced by artists for centuries. People have always wanted to preserve the essence of their loved ones tangibly, and portraiture is the art of representing a person or figure in paint. From the cave paintings of early man to masterpieces by the greatest artists throughout history, painted portraits were the only way to commemorate an individual until the advent of photography in the mid-1800s. Now, with access to digital photography at the tip of our fingers, the sheer number of photographs that exist today is a testament to how significant portraits are.
Though today we call it a desk, this striking piece of furniture is a stunning example of a Queen Anne period bureau. Queen Anne-style furniture was predominant from the 1720s to the 1760s. This bureau, likely constructed circa 1730, is a stunning example of the craftsmanship and design of the time.
Lorin remembers the day he found the photograph in the early 1990s. After lunch with his parents - "at the new version of the Belden Deli" - they made their way to a garage sale in the gymnasium at Francis Parker School in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. Lorin recalls, "We walked into the gymnasium, and I saw this photo of a ballet dancer in a ratty wooden frame. It had a $5 tag on it."
Patrick Henry O'Brien was born in Laurium, Michigan, on March 15, 1868. His parents, Mary and Patrick, were immigrants from County Cork, Ireland, who settled in the Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan, in 1863. The area was known as Copper County for the prevalent copper mining from the 1850s through the 1960s. Patrick lost both his father and uncle to mining accidents, leading him down a very different path.
Mother M. Frances Krasse left behind a legacy when she passed away from tuberculosis at the age of 46 in 1885. An emigrant from Germany, Mother M. Frances only spent nine years in Illinois. Along with five other Sisters, she arrived in Peoria in 1876 to start a hospital they named called St. Francis Hospital and was appointed the local superior. The following year, they formed a new congregation - Sister of the Third Order of St. Francis of Peoria, with Mother M. Frances serving as the first Mother General.
In 2014, a small group of volunteers in Marshalltown, Iowa, met to discuss the restoration of the Fisher Community Center Art collection, which had been untouched since the 1960s. The artworks were in desperate need for repair, care, and cataloguing, so the group set to work filing for grants and hiring specialists to help.
The Conservation Center CEO, Heather Becker, shares an update on the state of the company and staff since the start of the COVID pandemic in March 2020.
I sent out a letter in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, and then I sent an update in September 2020, which ended with "so stay tuned."
As many of you know, we have been writing and sending out monthly newsletters for the last 15 years, and a great number of you are loyal readers. So, thank you for "staying tuned," whether over the last 2 or 15 years, as our community of 30,000+ readers has grown.
Samplers are a type of embroidery traditionally used to showcase a person's needlework skills. During the 17th and 18th centuries, samplers became increasingly popular. They were common among young girls as a way to learn needlework and teach different stitching techniques. Samplers were also used as a way to record family history, often given as gifts or hung on the wall as a decorative item.
Even when they may seem simple, almost every treatment carried out in The Center's laboratory is a collaborative effort between different conservations and departments. This photograph, "Portrait of George Ramige" is a family antique and arrived in stable condition but with age-related issues. A reinforced photograph housed in an antique frame, this artwork was treated in three of our departments; Works of Art on Paper, Furniture, and Custom Framing and Display.
This hairwork necklace is circa 1845 and is part of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts collection in Little Rock, Arkansas. Constructed of braided hair and gold, it arrived at The Center displayed on a fabric-lined mount. The metal components exhibited minimal grime and oxidation, with solder marks on the two clasps that hold the chained cross at the top and the proper right end of the cross. Tears and fraying hair were noted on fourteen braided orbs; the damage varied, including missing material and deformations. The gold cap on the bottom of the cross was also missing. But, the focus of this treatment would be the hairwork beads and cross.
The Brandywine School of Artists was a group of impressionist and post-impressionist painters who lived and worked in the Brandywine River Valley region, primarily in Delaware and Pennsylvania, from 1870 to 1920. The artists are best known for depicting people residing along the Brandywine River during the late 19th century.
Philadelphia artist Howard Pyle founded the group. He had been a successful illustrator for books and magazines, but he wanted to teach his students more about color, light, form, space, and composition. He started teaching at Drexel Institute in 1885 before founding the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art. His artistic style influenced many artists, such as N.C. Wyeth, Thornton Oakley, and Frank Schoonover.
Digitalization is a relatively new way of preserving heritage. Whether family heirlooms or documents of cultural significance, digitizing allows us to keep history safe and share it with others as facsimiles or electronic images. While some items can be safely digitized at home, here at The Center we often see items of extreme delicacy, brittleness, or constructed in such a way that makes do-it-yourself scanning a risky prospect.
Families still come together for dinner, but how many are hosting dinner parties? Many households may have seating for two, four, or maybe 8, but these days not many have seating for 30. For affluent families at the turn of the 20th century, the ability to host large dinner parties was a mark of wealth and social standing - a display of opulence. Tables were deliberately designed wider than we see today, as speaking to guests across the table was considered bad manners. And dining room tables also had many leaves to adjust to the perfect length to accommodate that evening's guests.
The Assumption of Mary is a stunning and powerful image. It is a depiction of the event that gives the picture its name: the assumption of Mary into heaven. At nine feet tall, the commanding size creates a powerful experience that draws in the viewer. It's a captivating work of art, full of movement and life. But years of grime, discolored varnish, and mismatched repaint detracted from the painting.
The power of the drum is rooted in its ability to send messages. With the constant tempo of warriors' feet beating on the ground, it summons allies and beats back enemies with the same force. It can be used as an instrument of war or peace, a companion to dance and celebration. During the Revolutionary War, the drum played a vital role in conveying messages, persuading troops to fight, and boosting morale.
Founded in 1837 in Davenport, Iowa, St. Anthony Catholic Church is the second oldest Catholic church west of the Mississippi River. The historic church has evolved over the years, from a small 3-room building shared with the local judicial court and town hall, to merging with neighboring parish St. Mary's Catholic Church in July 2020. As a result of the merger, St. Anthony's has two sets of the Stations of the Cross; one, plaster relief sculptures set in the walls of the church, and the second, large oil paintings from St. Mary's. As John Cooper, Pastoral Associate at St. Anthony Catholic Church shares, "Both sets in their own unique ways, accomplish the artistic purpose of pulling you into the scene with Christ."
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