The Leopard Hunter

Conservation treatment photos of "Leopard Hunter", undated, by Jean Charlot. Oil on canvas, 11 x 14 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Acquired 1930.

Conservation treatment photos of "Leopard Hunter", undated, by Jean Charlot. Oil on canvas, 11 x 14 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Acquired 1930.

Passing through the galleries last week, I was pleasantly surprised to come across this little painting, Leopard Hunter by Jean Charlot, featured in the current installation of American painters in exotic locales. Leopard Hunter is one of the first paintings I conserved when I started working at the Phillips, and this is the first time since then I’ve seen it on display.

The photo at left taken before treatment shows how I received the painting: years of accumulated grime and a discolored, non-original varnish dulled the bright paint colors. The picture was also in a pretty fragile state. Sometime during its life, something had scraped across its delicate surface, leaving scratches, paint losses, and insecure paint surrounding the losses. The worst damage was in the face of the hunter.

To conserve the painting, I first consolidated the insecure paint using a clear, stable adhesive to prevent any further loss of original material. After carefully removing the surface dirt and the yellowed varnish, I used a fine putty to fill the areas of paint loss and recreate the thickness and texture of the missing paint layers. As I inpainted (or retouched) the filled losses, an old photo of Leopard Hunter taken before the painting was damaged helped me to reconstruct the original appearance of the picture as closely as possible .

It’s a treat to see Leopard Hunter on the wall again. I hope it enjoys its time out in the wild!

Details of the leopard hunter's face, showing damages before treatment on the left, and after treatment on the right.

Details of the leopard hunter's face, showing damages before treatment on the left, and after treatment on the right.

Tools of the Trade: Inpainting in the Conservation Studio

Retouching paint losses on 'The Pink Candle' by Henri Rousseau, c. 1908. Photos: Patricia Favero

Inpainting, also known as retouching or ‘loss compensation’, is one of the final steps in a conservation treatment. Conservators custom mix dry pigments with stable and reversible media to get just the right color to retouch losses and abrasions on an artwork.  Inpainting is confined to areas of lost paint only. It is intended to be invisible to the naked eye but distinguishable from original paint on close inspection or examination under ultraviolet light. The use of small brushes makes for a slow and exacting process. Something to listen to on the radio or a playlist, podcast, or audiobook is a necessary ‘tool’ for most conservators when completing this work.