Conservation Articles
Apr 8, 2020
The Paintings Conservation department at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco is currently undertaking a three-year treatment of François Boucher’s Vertumnus and Pomona (ca. 1757), funded by a generous grant from...
Mar 6, 2020
The hat had been sitting there in the dark for years, unremarked upon. Its swirl of freshwater pearls, the imperial double eagle on the front, the decoration of thick gold braid on red velvet; none of it was included in the...
Oct 29, 2019
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963–1983 celebrates art made by Black artists during two pivotal decades when issues of race and identity dominated and defined both public and private discourse. The...
Sep 18, 2019
In this post from the objects conservation lab, Catherine Coueignoux discusses a decorative technique known as marquetry used in the making of an 18th-century French writing table. Coueignoux is a former associate objects...
Feb 27, 2019
Thanks to a generous grant from the 2017 Bank of America Conservation Project, Morris Louis’s painting No. 11 (1961) has undergone major conservation treatment. Louis (American, 1912–1962) is widely acclaimed for...
Sep 21, 2018
The exhibition Truth and Beauty: The Pre-Raphaelites and the Old Masters at the Legion of Honor was created by a team that came together across the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. All four conservation...
Sep 10, 2018
The exhibition Truth and Beauty: The Pre-Raphaelites and the Old Masters at the Legion of Honor was created by a team that came together across the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. All four conservation...
Sep 3, 2018
In the eighteenth century, women in European society used fans as dynamic objects to convey emotions, flick away suitors, and keep themselves cool. As such, fans were repeatedly folded and unfolded, causing their materials...
Aug 29, 2018
The Textile Conservation Lab recently had two fascinating (and beautiful) examples of the weaving technique “double weave” in the lab at the same time: a length of fabric designed by William Morris in 1878–1881, woven on a...
Aug 28, 2018
The exhibition Truth and Beauty: The Pre-Raphaelites and the Old Masters at the Legion of Honor was created by a team that came together across the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. All four conservation...