National Gallery Technical Bulletin

    National Gallery Technical Bulletin Volume 35
    UKP40
    <URL:http://www.nationalgallery.co.uk/products/p_1038962>

Editor: Ashok Roy

Contributors: Alexandra Gent Conservator for the Wallace Collection
Reynolds Project; Lucy Davis, Curator of Old Master Pictures, The
Wallace Collection; Ashok Roy, Director of Collections, The National
Gallery; Rachel Morrison, Higher Scientific Officer, The National
Gallery; Susan Foister, Director of Public Engagement, The National
Gallery.

The National Gallery Technical Bulletin is a unique record of
research carried out at the National Gallery, London.  Drawing on
the combined expertise of scientists, conservators and curators, it
brings together a wealth of information about artists' materials,
practices, and techniques.

The painting techniques of the great society painter Sir Joshua
Reynolds (1723-1792), first president of the Royal Academy, are
notorious for their unstable mixtures of materials, particularly in
his paint media.  Reynolds's spirited response to his critics that
'all good pictures crack' reveals a problematic technique that
manifested itself during his lifetime.

The legacy of Reynolds's unsound painting practice is a challenge to
conservators who are required to use great caution in treating these
vulnerable paintings.  This special issue of the National Gallery
Technical Bulletin is the first thorough account of Reynolds's
painting materials and techniques, resulting from a
multidisciplinary research collaboration between the National
Gallery and the Wallace Collection.  The publication of this
Technical Bulletin anticipates the exhibition Sir Joshua Reynolds:
Experiments in Paint to be held at the Wallace Collection, London
(12 March-7 June 2015).

Contents:

    Introduction and Acknowledgements
    Ashok Roy

    Joshua Reynolds at the National Gallery
    Susan Foister

        Two short essays introduce this research collaboration
        between the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection,
        with an overview on how the paintings by Reynolds entered
        the collections now at Hertford House and Trafalgar Square

    "Practice Makes Imperfect: Joshua Reynolds's Painting Technique"
    Alexandra Gent, Ashok Roy and Rachel Morrison

        All those who have explored Reynolds's techniques in any
        detail agree that no two of his pictures are likely to be
        quite the same in terms either of their materials and
        making, or their response to conservation treatments and
        especially to cleaning.  This essay, on the general features
        of Reynolds's material practices, sets findings of recent
        technical examination of the pictures in a broader context.
        The study surveys his choice of supports, ground layers,
        pigments and paint binders over the course of a long career.
        The essay concludes with a pictorial timeline of the 17
        pictures discussed in the catalogue section that follows it.

    Catalogue
    Alexandra Gent, Ashok Roy and Rachel Morrison

        This catalogue of 17 pictures (12 in the Wallace Collection
        and 5 in the National Gallery) explores the habitually
        complex and multilayered paint structures that characterise
        Reynolds's unusually elaborate technique.  Each of the
        pictures is illustrated and includes X-ray, infrared images
        cross-sections and details.  These investigations provide a
        complete material evaluation of the pictures, allowing
        conservators and curators to interpret the evolution of the
        stages of each composition, and to assess possible changes
        in appearance over time.  This investigation also includes
        the first wide-ranging scientific analyses of the
        constitution of Reynolds's experimental and idiosyncratic
        combinations of paint binding media, in which incompatible
        additives to drying oils, such as wax or resinous materials,
        have now been firmly identified.

Notes and Bibliography


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