Caring for a Collection

Portland Museum of Art

Portland, Maine

1-207-773-ARTS or 1-800-639-4067

http://www.portlandmuseum.org

Caring for a Collection

January 9 through March 19, 1999

With the growth of any collection comes a responsibility and a need to properly maintain it. This need was recognized in 1997 when first the Joan Whitney and Charles Shipman Payson Foundation, and then the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), awarded the Museum a total of nearly $25,000 to conserve eight important 19th-century paintings from the permanent collection. The success of the project inspired the Museum to conserve two more important works with funds from its operating budget. Recently cleaned and restored at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Massachusetts, all 10 works will he on view at the Museum, most for the first time since entering the collection.

Joining these paintings by early regional masters such as Charles Codman, William Matthew Prior, Royall Brewster Smith, Franklin Stanwood, and William Pierce Stubbs will be photographs of the paintings in their pre-conservation state, as well as a description of the work that was undertaken on each piece. Visitors will have the opportunity to see first-hand the dramatic effects of expert conservation work, and to learn more about the processes and concerns involved in caring for a collection of fine art.

The Museum is deeply grateful to the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Joan Whitney and Charles Shipman Payson Charitable Foundation for their contributions to the success of this project. Thanks are also due to the individual donors who have supported the Museum's conservation program.

From top to bottom: Charles Codman, Landscape with Indians, c. 1830, oil on canvas, 1916.20; William Pierce Stubbs, Barkentine "Carrie Heckel" , c. 1879, oil on canvas, 1993.14.1; Royall Brewster Smith, Hannah Edwards, 1831, oil on canvas, 1991.78.2; William Matthew Prior, Rochester Castle, n.d., oil on canvas, 1978.196.

Be sure to visit more of the Resource Library with museum exhibition news, stories on American art, calendars, and more. Here are links to selected sections of the magazine: