Paintings conservation.(Design notes)(Fodera Fine Art Conservation)

The well-known deafmute portrait painter John Brewster Jr. was born in Hampton, Connecticut, and learned to paint from the Reverend Joseph Steward. When his brother and sister-in-law moved to Buxton, Maine, in 1795, Brewster accompanied them, and from there journeyed forth seeking commissions in New England. By 1798 he was in Danbury, Connecticut, where he acquired various items of clothing and artists' supplies, including paintbrushes, from Comfort Starr Mygatt, a merchant, silversmith, and watchmaker. To settle his account, Brewster painted two large double portraits of Mygatt's family including Comfort Starr Mygatt and Daughter, Lucy (illustrated here). The work is a superb example of the artist's mature style in which he presents his sitters in a beautiful and direct manner that focuses the viewer's attention on their faces.

When the portrait of Mygatt and his daughter arrived at Fodera Fine Art Conservation, Peter Fodera and Kenneth Needleman instantly recognized it as one of Brewster's most important works despite the dulled varnish that discolored it. After carefully examining and researching the portrait, they went to work cleaning it. Using gentle solvents to remove the years of dirt and grime that masked the painting, Fodera and Needleman were able to reveal Brewster's superb draftsmanship, the stark gray walls, densely patterned carpet, and the sitters' pink and white flesh tones, once again reaffirming his extraordinary talent as a portrait painter.

Fodera and Needleman met in 1982 on a project to conserve John Vanderlyn's 165-foot-long panorama, The Palace and Gardens of Versailles of 1819, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York ...