Pouncing

Our American Paintings collection contains a Jaspar Cropsey
landscape that dates to 1876 and features the monoliths of
Stonehenge surrounded by small grazing sheep.  Infrared
reflectography (IRR) reveals that Cropsey used a traditional
pouncing technique to transfer a drawn composition to the primed
canvas, an unusual working technique for a landscape of this period.
IRR reveals a regular pattern of somewhat evenly-spaced,
pinpoint-size dots of possibly charcoal that outline the stone
structures, crevices, and shadows.  These dots also outline the
small sheep, their shadows, and even a few foreground wildflowers.
The Newington-Cropsey Foundation has several pricked paper stencils
that Cropsey used for the design elements of the Drill Room at the
Seventh Regiment Armory in New York City, so it seems that Cropsey
was familiar with this transfer technique.  If anyone has observed a
pouncing technique on other Cropsey paintings or other landscapes of
this period, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Mary Schafer
Assistant Paintings Conservator
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
4525 Oak Street
Kansas City MO 64111-1873


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 18:54
                   Distributed: Friday, May 20, 2005
                       Message Id: cdl-18-54-028
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