Bank of America Partners with Award-winning Museum to Give Visitors An Insider’s Look at the Conservation of Three Impressionist Paintings

Farmington, CT - Works by three prominent masters, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet, from Hill-Stead Museum’s incomparable collection of French paintings will be conserved through a process viewed by the public. This conservation project is one of a select group of 24 Art Conservation Projects announced this year by Bank of America–projects representing a diverse range of artistic styles, media and cultural traditions in 11 different countries.

With funding from Bank of America, Hill-Stead Museum will be able to keep the artwork on the premises for this special conservation process. This approach better protects the work of art, limiting travel to and from a distant studio, and lessening the risk inherent with travel.

“We will adapt the model developed by the Museum voor Schone Kunsten (MSK) in Ghent, Belgium in 2012 to create a visible on-site conservation studio within the museum that allows daily visitors unprecedented visual access to the process and progress. The ‘fishbowl’ experience at Hill-Stead will take place in a recently renovated space, repurposed as an exhibition gallery, complete with a glass wall for ‘at your leisure’ viewing,” said Dr. Anna Swinbourne, Executive Director and CEO for Hill-Stead.

By keeping the artwork on premises, visitors will be encouraged to develop and understand another educational aspect within their own personal relationship with the art. Short gallery talks and gallery guides will be developed to aid visitors’ understanding of the conservation processes unfolding in real time. As a matter of preservation, this treatment will bring the paintings as close as possible to their original states, allowing visitors to better understand the artists’ original intentions and use of chosen material and medium.

The conservators treating the paintings will give an in-depth presentation on the process and their findings. David Bull and Teresa Longyear, world-renowned authorities on conservation, and their company Fine Art Conservation and Restoration, INC will perform the on-site conservation effort.

“The remarkable quality of the paintings makes this an exciting project,” said Teresa Jarvis Longyear, Partner. “It is also a wonderful way to celebrate this year, which marks the 150th anniversary of the start of Impressionism in France.”

The Bank of America Art Conservation Project (ACP) provides grants to nonprofit cultural institutions around the globe to conserve historically or culturally significant works of art. Since 2010, Bank of America’s ACP grant program has supported more than 261 projects across 40 countries to conserve paintings, sculptures, and archeological and architectural works. In partnership with Bank of America, Hill-Stead Museum will be able to imbue critical works from its collection with new life while sharing the conservation process with visitors.

“Cultural institutions and the arts make our region stronger-they help support economic development and foster greater understanding in our communities,” said Joe Gianni, president, Bank of America Greater Hartford. “Bank of America’s Art Conservation Project is a global program that will support Hill-Stead Museum’s preservation of three Impressionist masterworks and offer the community a behind-the-scenes look at the restoration process in real time. We are thrilled that the Hill-Stead has been selected for this project and that visitors from near and far will be able to see these incredible works of art in a new way.”

Hill-Stead Museum is originally a family home, built in 1901 for Alfred and Ada Pope, designed by their daughter Theodate, America’s first female architect.

The trio of paintings for this conservation project were all acquired by Alfred Pope in the 1890s. Pope was among the earliest American Collectors of French Impressionism.

Fishing Boats at Sea by Monet was purchased in 1894 at Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris; Degas’s Dancers in Pink was purchased in 1893 from Cottier and Co., New York; and Manet’s Toreadors was purchased in 1896 from E. J. van Wisselingh, London.

Pope’s collection began in earnest in 1888 upon purchasing Claude Monet’s View of Cap d’Antibes within weeks of its completion. During Pope’s active collecting period, 1889-1907, he amassed a remarkable group of vanguard paintings by Monet and colleagues, including Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, James McNeill Whistler and more. Striving to own examples that spoke to him in the most compelling fashion, Pope sold and exchanged artworks actively, yet the core of his collection remained intact upon his sudden death in 1913, and was passed to his wife and daughter, Theodate.

Pope’s daughter, Theodate Pope Riddle (1867-1946), was a pioneering American women architect and, in fact, designed Hill-Stead to be, among other things, a showplace for her father’s beloved art collection. At Pope Riddle’s death, her will stipulated that the family home become a museum-completely intact and collections left in situ. The above paintings and others may not travel from the premises and have been on permanent view to the public for the past 77 years.

“Through its exceptional collection of paintings, Hill-Stead Museum provides an overview of French Impressionism (1874-1886), from origins to aftermath, in highly compelling fashion. The entire collection is installed in the intimate domestic interiors of a historic home as awe-inspiring pieces of the fabric of daily life during the first half of the 20th century. These are circumstances under which today’s visitor to Hill-Stead may encounter and study these artworks. Further, these paintings are presented in their period frames without any glazing, which permits incredible visual access to their rich, painterly surfaces.
Hill-Stead clearly understands that offering this cultural and educational opportunity is critical to its mission as an institution devoted to the teaching and benefit of the public, and it fully appreciates its responsibility of stewardship in this regard. To accomplish this, Hill-Stead has prioritized the physical conservation of its collection to present them in optimal condition,” said Dr. Swinbourne.

“On a personal note, this arrangement to treat the artwork from a conservation standpoint, with the help of Bank of America, allows us to remain squarely within the strict parameters of Theodate’s will that nothing is to ever leave the collection or be added…” added Dr. Swinbourne.

For more information on this exciting moment within the Hill-Stead experience, please contact Ana Alvarez, [email protected].