Project Blue Boy: Conservation
The Blue Boy shown in normal light photography, digital x-radiography, and infrared reflectography.
Visible Light and Cross-Section wavelength ~400-700 nm
Infrared Reflectography (IRR) wavelength ~900-1700 nm
Ultraviolet Light Wavelength ~320-400 nm
X-radiography (X-ray) wavelength Less than 10 nm
Visible light
Wavelength ~400-700 nm
Visible light reveals details about the artist’s techniques and the materials that were used to create the painting. By carefully studying the surface, a conservator may discover such condition issues as abraded or cracked paint or discolored overpaint that no longer matches the surrounding original paint.
Details Under Visible Light
Some condition issues are readily visible under normal light. For example, this detail from The Blue Boy’s far left edge illustrates that the overpaint, or non-original colors added during past conservation, has become discolored.
Details Under Visible Light
This detail shows where a thinly painted area has worn away, barely concealing the abandoned portrait of a man wearing a thick white neckcloth.
Details Under Visible Light
This detail from the back of the stretcher displays where Charles Holmes, then director of London's National Gallery, wrote his goodbye before the painting left for the United States: “Au revoir, CH.”
Details Under Visible Light
Raking light, or light angled across the painting, highlights texture: how the paint was applied and where it is cracked or lifting from the surface.
Cross-Section Analysis
Wavelength ~400-700 nm
Cross-section analysis involves embedding a tiny sample in resin and viewing all of the layers under a microscope. This type of analysis shows that the lower layer for The Blue Boy, a double ground, contains lead white and chalk, with some yellow ocher and a few black particles mixed in to create an off-white preparatory layer. The abandoned portrait’s flesh tones were created with lead white and vermilion, which was then covered by a layer of gray.
Microscopic Materials
On the left is a cross-section of a minuscule sample from the painting’s top edge, showing the colors and materials that were used in each layer. Click the arrows to see a color-coded map of the individual elements.
Microscopic Materials
On the left is a cross-section of a minuscule sample from the painting’s top edge, showing the colors and materials that were used in each layer. Click the arrows to see a color-coded map of the individual elements.
Ultraviolet Light
Wavelength ~320-400 nm
Ultraviolet light helps conservators distinguish certain surface materials, such as varnishes or overpaint, because they interact differently with this type of light. A particular varnish, for instance, may fluoresce, or reflect back a characteristic color. Overpaint, on the other hand, may not fluoresce, revealing where prior conservation work has occurred.
Details Under Ultraviolet Light
Ultraviolet (UV) light reveals details about the materials that are not visible to the human eye. UV illumination shows overpaint from previous restorations; the overpaint absorbs UV light, but the varnish fluoresces.
Details Under Ultraviolet Light
Ultraviolet (UV) light reveals details about the materials that are not visible to the human eye. UV illumination shows overpaint from previous restorations; the overpaint absorbs UV light, but the varnish fluoresces.
Infrared Reflectography
Wavelength ~900-1700 nm
Infrared reflectography (IRR) uses wavelengths beyond the red end of the light spectrum to look through the upper paint layers. What can be seen depends on the thickness of the paint, the type of paint used, and the IRR wavelength. For instance, IRR displays how Gainsborough covered over an earlier portrait with dark paint. Only the face and the outlines of the shoulders were painted, confirming that he abandoned the portrait at an early stage.
Infrared reflectography (IRR) provides details about paint layers that are beneath the surface. Gainsborough used a dark paint to cover the abandoned portrait before painting The Blue Boy.
Infrared imaging reveals Gainsborough's preparatory lines, including one along the side of the boy's body; it also shows how he disguised the figure of a dog he decided to eliminate from the composition by covering it with foliage.
X-radiography
Wavelength Less than 10 nm
X-rays pass through all of the layers of a painting, showing ones that are invisible from the surface. This can provide clues about how a painting was made, the ways in which the artist changed the composition, and evidence of earlier damage. For instance, X-rays of The Blue Boy capture the complexity of Gainsborough’s layered brushstrokes, especially in the costume. They also reveal the structure and condition of the underlying wooden support.
X-rays reveal the details of a man’s face, a repaired tear in the lower left, and a dog that Gainsborough initially painted, then decided against. X-rays provide a glimpse of a portrait that Gainsborough began but then abandoned before deciding to reuse the canvas.
The Huntington Library, Art Musem, and Botanical Gardens.
History
Project Blue Boy
Who was Thomas Gainsborough and who were his influences? And just who was that boy in blue? Learn more about the history of The Blue Boy.
Credits
Text and photos by Christina O'Connell
Graphics design by Catherine Bell
SEM-EDS analysis and imaging of cross-sections courtesy of Dr. Gregory D. Smith, Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields