For those who have always wondered what exactly painting conservation is, you're in luck. Visitors to the Saint Louis Art Museum can watch conservators restore the only existing Mississippi River panorama for the next few months in Sculpture Hall.
Conservation efforts on Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley were begun in 2011 and continued off and on over the past few years. The Saint Louis Art Museum just announced that conservationists have started back up again and the restoration of the panorama will likely be finished this summer.
The panorama, made in the mid-19th century by John J. Egan, is 350 feet of fabric scrolled horizontally from one roller to another to show 25 painted scenes. At the time, panoramas were very popular, and would be scrolled through in front of an audience. However, this scrolling caused sections of paint to wear off over time.
Claire Winfield, an associate paintings conservator at the Saint Louis Art Museum, is one of the conservators currently working on restoring the painting. “We, in our society and culture, value things for different reasons and I think that art, especially paintings in general, are how we express ourselves as people," said Winfield.
Winfield explained that the restoration of paintings typically depends on what the painting was painted with and what it was painted on. For this panorama, the restoration is a two-step process.
Due to the painting's excessive amount of handling and moving over time, sections of paint on the panorama are loose, powdery, and falling off. So the first step of restoration requires putting those pieces back into place using a consolidant or glue. This is typically diluted gelatin.
The second step is replacing the color that has been lost over time, which is done by using watercolor crayons, which are water-soluble, versatile, and reversible. Restorers are able to essentially color in the spots that are more sparse or missing colors.
Visitors to the Saint Louis Art Museum are welcome to come and watch conservators preserve the painting in a space in the southwest corner of Sculpture Hall. “It’s a unique opportunity for the viewer to see conservation in action,” Winfield said.
In total, there will be four conservators working in shifts on the Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley. “It can be challenging, it’s meant to be viewed from a distance,” Winfield said. This makes it hard for restorers to see progress while working up close on the painting.
“You’ll see us getting up and walking away to see how we’re doing in terms of our progress,” Winfield said. “It’s important to not work too quickly.”
Because of its large size, the panorama will remain in Sculpture Hall after the conservation is over.
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