Eustis Estate
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St. Servan Harbor

St. Servan Harbor

Edward Darley Boit

From the Conservator's Notebook

Historic New England objects conservator Michaela Neiro supervised the conservation treatment and stabilization of this exhibition’s paintings and frames over a period of two years. The Conservator’s Notebook features explanations and insights that Michaela has drawn from her project notebook, including close-up photographs showing how the work was done.

Here you can see the before (left) and after (right) treatment images of Boit’s St. Servan Harbor.

What does it mean to “treat” a painting? There are many steps that the conservators take as they care for each painting. Click through the images below to learn more about how this painting was conserved.

Documenting Before Treatment

The very first step in any conservation treatment is to photo-document the object using a scale and color card. Ensuring the camera and lighting are the same before and after treatment highlights the work that was done and not any magic photographic manipulation. Note it is labeled BT for Before Treatment.

Who works on it?

Usually paintings are treated by paintings specialists and frames by frame or object specialists. The treatment for this painting was very straightforward and the painting is in very good condition, so the objects conservator (Michaela Neiro, on the right) was able to help the paintings conservator (Lisa Mehlin, at left) clean the painting.

How do you clean a painting?

When people talk about cleaning a painting, this usually means removing the dirty, aged, and yellowed varnish. After the surface cleaning in the previous image, the varnish was tested for removal with solvents that act only on the varnish and not the paint.

Varnish

A light colored painting like this can become very disfigured by a darkened, yellowed varnish.

Satisfying cleaning

Lisa and Michaela are seen removing the varnish. Because the results are so swift and easy to observe, paintings like this one are very satisfying to clean.

Protecting the painting

After all the old varnish was removed, a new transparent varnish was applied by brush to protect the paint surface for years.

Boit Conservation
Documenting Before Treatment
Who works on it?
How do you clean a painting?
Varnish
Satisfying cleaning
Protecting the painting
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