One of the Chrysler Museum’s most prominent artifacts will receive a significant refresh thanks to a $75,000 conservation grant.
Edgar Degas’ painting “Dancer with Bouquets” is one of only 24 works of art worldwide to be awarded the prestigious grant from Bank of America’s Art Conservation Project.
Mark Lewis, conservator at the Chrysler since 2001, said the funds will enable him and other staff to investigate the story behind the French Impressionist who created the painting between 1890 and 1895.
The life-size oil on canvas is of a prima ballerina bathed in the footlights, curtseying to the audience in the Paris Opera House.
“Degas could have been working on this painting for many years as he kept experimenting and playing with it,” Lewis said. “He never signed it. I don’t know that he thought it was finished. We’ve never done a technical analysis, which this grant will allow us to do.”
The painting was found in Degas’ studio when he died in 1917.
Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. gifted the painting to the museum in memory of his mother, Della Viola Forker Chrysler.
Degas is considered a French treasure, distinguished by his precision and ability to view scenes from unique angles that he presented unconventionally.
“Dancer with Bouquets” is a later work painted when his failing eyesight forced him to alter his technique.
“There appear to be areas of the painting where the artist used his fingers to apply and blend the paint,” Lewis said. “That’s just one of many reasons we want to study this painting to learn more about the artist, his use of materials and his techniques.”
Lewis is hopeful research will uncover details relevant to the finish.
Many impressionists did not want their paintings varnished, as the protective coating saturates the pigments on the painting.
“When you varnish an oil painting, besides making it shiny, it darkens and deepens all the colors,” Lewis said. “It can totally alter the way the artist set up the color relationships.”
The Chrysler hopes to partner with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond to use its advanced radiography equipment to x-ray the painting for clues. This might help explain how Degas developed the composition.
“X-raying a painting is similar to the way a doctor uses an X-ray to reveal a broken bone,” Lewis said. “You can see right through the paint layers to learn what’s underneath.”
Infrared photography can potentially reveal drawings or compositional changes with certain colors.
Cross sectional analysis starts with a fleck of paint that is grounded into a cube of resin before being polished and examined under a microscope.
“It’s like cutting into a piece of cake,” Lewis said. “You can see all the layers that went into making the work. You can analyze all the layers to understand how the artist built up the composition. It’s usually a multi-layer construction rather than (mixing) a color and, ‘Boom! Put it on.’ We’ll be doing some of that.”
Like many artists, Degas constructed his own frames. Lewis will examine his sketchbooks to determine if the current 400-pound frame represents what the artist intended.
The painting’s ownership history will also be researched. Lewis will connect with other museums and conservators internationally who have followed a similar trail.
Lewis anticipates collaborating with the national galleries in both Washington and London, The Met, Art Institute of Chicago and Musée d'Orsay in Paris. These institutions all have works by Degas that have been studied.
This summer, “Dancer with Bouquets” will be on view in the Chrysler’s Oval Gallery. It will be displayed alongside another ballet painting by Degas, on loan to the Chrysler from The Frick Collection in New York.
In the fall, “Dancer with Bouquets” will travel to Richmond to start the technical process before it returns to Norfolk for additional analysis.
Lewis anticipates a public component that will allow a portion of the conservation work to be on view with scheduled events for asking questions and sharing progress.
