Wadsworth Atheneum Set To Restore ‘Lazarus’

HARTFORD — A monumental painting by the American artist Benjamin West will be restored to life and shown to the public once again thanks in part to a $26,300 matching grant awarded to Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency.

Due to its condition, Benjamin West’s 1780 depiction of “The Raising of Lazarus” has been in storage for some 50 years. The painting’s age and size – 8½ by 10 feet – have caused its canvas edging to tear, making it unsafe to display.

Also, since no art museum is immune to dust and grime, “Lazarus” has accumulated both. Beneath the dirt, a thick brown varnish obscures what two centuries ago was described as “coloring full and bold,” making the subject illegible.

Restoration will begin in January and is expected to take one year.  First the painting will be cleaned, cracking or flaking paint will be stabilized, and the varnish will be removed or thinned, depending upon the area. Next the old lining will be removed, and the painting will be relined and fitted on a new, custom-built stretcher. Finally, the painting will be retouched. Meanwhile, an aesthetically appropriate frame will be found.

“We are enormously grateful for the grant which will allow the restoration and display of this painting,” said Willard Holmes, director of the Wadsworth Atheneum. “We are planning an exhibition for 2005 that will not only show the painting in all its glory, but document from beginning to end the transformation this grant has made possible.”

The first American-born artist to achieve dazzling success and prominence in Britain, Benjamin West (1738-1820) was twice president of The Royal Academy in London and was a history painter to King George III. As the teacher of several generations of American artists who flocked to his London studio, however, he has often been called the “father of American painting.”

At the height of his fame, in 1780, West painted “The Raising of Lazarus” for Winchester Cathedral on commission for its dean, Newton Ogle. The work was first exhibited at the Royal Academy before its installation in the medieval cathedral in Hampshire, England. “Lazarus” then hung as an altarpiece within a 15th Century reredos (an ornamental wood or stone screen or partition) from 1782 until 1900, when conservation of the reredos called for the painting’s removal. That year, the dean of Winchester Cathedral permitted J. Pierpont Morgan to purchase “Lazarus,” supposedly for $7,000 (U.S.).

In August 1900, Morgan presented “Lazarus” as a gift to the Wadsworth Atheneum. Some New Yorkers were sorely disappointed, having believed Morgan would give the painting to the Cathedral of St John the Divine. A New York City press clipping (newspaper name and date unknown) stated, “It is thought only natural, however, that Mr Morgan should present this picture to his native city and to the Atheneum.”

The September 5, 1900 edition of The Connecticut Courant (now The Hartford Courant) described the painting as “a dignified and noble work of art, very impressive and…familiar to the public for many years by prints and other reproductions. It has a luminous background which afford contrast to the rich colorings of the robes of the many life size figures, grouped about the tomb of Lazarus, witnessing the great miracle. The faces are solemn in their expression of awe and wonder, but there is nothing gruesome about the treatment of the theme.”

“The Raising of Lazarus” was on view at the Wadsworth Atheneum for about 50 years, until concerns about its condition necessitated its removal from public view.

The museum owns two other paintings by Benjamin West, “Una and the Lion” (1771), inspired by Edmund Spenser’s “Faerie Queene,” and “Saul and the Witch of Endor” (1771), based on the Old Testament tale.