Wall Murals Uncovered In 19th Century Dodgingtown Home

Date: Fri 29-Mar-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

murals-Cunningham-Adams

Full Text:

with cuts: Wall Murals Uncovered In 19th Century Dodgingtown Home

BY ANDREA ZIMMERMANN

Richard and Jaclyn Krikorian have found buried treasure under layers of paint

and small patches of wallpaper in the dining room of their 1890s Dodgingtown

home. Their discovery? Wall murals.

The mural in the best shape, a landscape, will be restored with the help of

fine arts painting conservator Christiana Cunningham-Adams of Newtown.

"I think it adds character," said Mr Krikorian. "[In refurbishing the rooms]

we wanted to stay with the Victorian style of the house."

The mural was painted directly on the plaster wall and appears to be oil,

rather than tempera (a medium with a water-soluble binding) because of the

types of cracks exhibited. That is fortunate, said Ms Cunningham-Adams,

because tempera would be a lot more fragile.

"We should think of ourselves as surgeons who are going to sew up problems,

rather than interpret art," she said. Some people have the misconception that

"we put on little berets and go to it with a paint brush," instead of

in-painting or just "retouching" where the loss is.

The many cracks in the painting are a "visual distraction that diminish the

painting's legibility," she explained. If you were having guests to your home,

you would clear off the dining room table and put things away so the beauty of

the room and furniture would be apparent. A white newspaper laying on a wood

table would draw your eye because it is of high optical value, and thereby

disrupt the overall impression of the room, itself, she said.

Because of the cracks in the mural, "you're not feeling the chill air going

through these brittle twigs, the rolling of the sled, the interesting

perspective of the fence," said Ms Cunningham-Adams, pointing to various

elements in the painting. You're not seeing the relationships in what is

depicted - for instance: How important is the pounding of the water on the

still winter day?

Restoration is a slow process, the first phase is conservation of the piece by

arresting decay. Ms Cunningham-Adams looks at how the piece was made and how

the materials are standing up; she then attempts to arrest decay. The next

step is to determine how to recover some of the legibility of the painting and

recover some of the original aesthetic character.

"You can't take a painting back to the way it looked when it was first painted

- you're going to require too much cosmetic make-up and it's not a good idea

to camouflage all those indications of the object's life and age," said the

conservator. "You don't want to take the object out of it's natural place in

time and art history... There's a delicate balance in the effort to recover

aesthetic legibility and leaving some natural indications of age."

The varnish which covered the mural definitely helped hold in it in place all

these years, said Ms Cunningham-Adams. But it has yellowed and now dulls the

subtle colors in the painting.

"I didn't even notice some things until after she started to clean it," said

Mr Krikorian. For instance, the sled tracks, the well, and the whiteness of a

roof all became apparent when the varnish was removed from a small section.

"The thing about this painting that is so incredible is the detail... The

detail suggests the artist wasn't a professional muralist. Professionals

tended to do a much more simple `stage set' design" in a continuum around the

room. But he may have been an easel painter, she explained.

Gloria Richardson, who grew up in the house behind the Victorian era home,

remembers seeing this particular landscape mural as a young child. "The

father, Frank Shepherd, I think probably did the paintings. He was so

artistic. He carved fancy hair combs from steer and oxen horns [as a living.]"

Ms Richardson, who knew the elderly spinster daughters, has a letter dated

1852 regarding Mr Shepherd's business.

Town Historian Dan Cruson is researching the history of the house, now a

two-family home, located at the intersection of Dodgingtown and Flat Swamp

roads. He hopes that he will find clues as to when and by whom the painting

was rendered.

"This is so special - the detail, composition, brush work. It is well balanced

- you could look at it forever. This person knew how to paint," said Ms

Cunningham-Adams. "It's a wonderful thing and it's got to be saved."

That is why she is donating her time to carefully test the piece, clean off

the old varnish, put a protective matt finish on it, use a gesso compound to

fill deep gouges to the level of the painting and stabilize the work, and then

instruct the homeowners as to how they can safely retouch the artwork. As in

any restoration work, each phase will be documented through photography.

The purpose of the placing a finish over the painting before retouching is to

avoid "contamination" and allow for the new paint to be removed in the event

of error. The retouching for this piece will be done in watercolor. "You

always use something different than the original type of paint so your work

can be distinguished," said Ms Cunningham-Adams.

Tradition of Murals

The traditional role of wall painting - ranging from cave paintings to tromp

l'oeil - was to open up a room, to immediately get an airier feeling. And the

popularity of wall murals in the US has come in waves since the early 1700s,

the conservator said. The most recent example would be during the 1930s when

the Work Projects Administration put many artists to work painting murals in

post offices and government buildings.

Many of the wall paintings in this country have been lost because tastes and

styles change and walls are town down or painted. So the Krikorians, and

others like them who choose to restore murals, are `making an enormous

contribution,' according to Ms Cunningham-Adams.

"It's important that the public be made aware of the value [of wall murals]...

- our aesthetic history," she said. Preserving this type of artwork will help

people understand where our present culture comes from. "We have got to have

that perspective... We learn a lot about who we are today by looking at where

we've been."

The interest in architectural restoration - recovering the elegance and

aesthetics of another period - began about 20 years ago, she said. "Most art

historians in this country have not taken [wall painting] seriously. But I

think that's changing with the publicity about the restoration of the Sistine

Chapel," said the conservator.

Ms Cunningham-Adams offers conservation consulting, and treatment of canvas

and panel paintings, polychrome sculpture, and wall paintings to museums,

historical societies, churches, government agencies, and private collectors.

She has applied her expertise to the conservation of more than 100 murals

executed in diverse techniques and styles, and dating from the 1st to the 20th

centuries. Her partner and husband, engineer George W. Adams, plans and

manages the projects, directs all scientific analysis and all documentation,

analyzes environmental conditions and control, as well as other aspects of the

conservation. One of the projects they are currently working on is the

restoration of two large oil painting murals at the Lincoln Memorial in

Washington, DC.

The conservator said she really wants to help restore the Krikorians wall

mural for Newtown, for the community; it is part of our cultural heritage. And

if the homeowners take care of the mural and keep it as a showpiece, those who

see it and whoever has the house next will see that it has been valued.

"Respect engenders respect," said Ms Cunningham-Adams.

Anyone in town who has a mural in their home, or who has information on the

artists who might have painted wall murals in this area, are invited to

contact Town Historian Dan Cruson at 426-6021, or Christiana Cunningham-Adams

and George Adams at 426-7135. They are interested in documenting the artwork,

and can offer suggestions as to how best to preserve and restore the

paintings.