SOME PICTURE CLEANING CONTROVERSIES: PAST AND PRESENT∗∗This paper constituting the George L. Stout Memorial Lecture was presented at the AIC Annual Meeting, Baltimore, 1983. It was prepared for delivery conjointly with 38 color slides, presenting as many images as time allowed to feature 24 paintings touched by controversy. The slides were projected as the pictures appear today, simultaneously with a reading of complaints and replies of participants in the controversies. Only those treated in recent times permitted comparison of their appearance before and after cleaning. For publication in the Journal of the American Institute of Conservation numerous revisions were necessary and considerably fewer illustrations could be used. The paper is published here without individual footnote references to sources, but a bibliographical listing of the texts consulted in preparing the lecture is appended.

Sheldon Keck