|
|
<%
End If
%>
CCI Newsletter, No. 22, November 1998
Unveiling the Work of Emanuel Hahn and Elizabeth Wyn Wood
by Doris Couture-Rigert, Conservator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts,
National Gallery of Canada, and Kate Helwig, Senior Assistant Conservation
Scientist, Analytical Research Laboratory
|
"Emanual Hahn and Elizabeth Wyn Wood: Tradition and Innovation in
Canadian Sculpture" was recently organized and circulated by the
National Gallery of Canada (NGC). The conservation staff at NGC
collaborated with scientists at CCI during their examination and
treatment of 71 sculptures in preparation for this retrospective
exhibition, and in the process uncovered new information about the
materials and techniques of these two important Canadian artists.
>Emanuel Hahn (1881–1957) and Elizabeth Wyn Wood (1903–1966),
two Toronto-based sculptors, lived and worked side by side for more
than 30 years. Both modelled their studio pieces, maquettes, and
public monuments in clay, and then cast them in plaster as an intermediate
stage in the production of the finished sculpture. Although the
works were intended to be either cast in metal or sculpted in wood
or stone, many were never produced in their final material and only
the plaster version is extant. [This is reflected in the exhibition,
which features 39 works in plaster.] The majority of the plasters
were given a painted finish by the artist to create the impression
of patinated bronze, with colours ranging from green and blue-green
to various shades of brown. Stone and metals such as aluminum were
also imitated. Both artists, but particularly Hahn, developed an
impressively realistic trompe-l'œil effect with the
superimposition of different coloured paint layers and washes. In
some cases the surface finish was not added to the plaster until
years after it had been cast.
>All of the works featured in the exhibition were closely examined,
tested, and treated over the course of the four years leading up
to the first presentation at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection
in Kleinburg, Ontario, in May 1997. Many of the works came from
the artists' estate and all of these, with the exception of drawings
and a sketchbook by Wood, were in need of comprehensive treatment.
Some sculptures belonging to NGC also required extensive repair.
Treatments for the metal sculptures included mechanical removal
of corrosion, corrosion stabilization under vacuum, and visual surface
integration for the patinated bronzes, and removal of tarnish for
the tin sculptures; painted plasters required consolidation of interlayer
cleavage and flaking, structural stabilization, surface cleaning,
infilling, and inpainting.
>During examination and treatment of the works,
NGC conservators, intrigued by the artists' painting techniques
and eager to gain more information about the materials used by the
two artists, called on CCI to analyse paint samples from seven plaster
sculptures by Hahn and three by Wood. Minute samples of paint were
removed from the sculptures and analysed using Fourier transform
infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray microanalysis, and
polarized light microscopy to identify the pigments and paint media.
Cross-section samples were also prepared to elucidate the layering
of paint used by the artists to achieve specific colouristic effects.
|
|
|
Five of Hahn's plaster sculptures painted to imitate
bronze were chosen for analysis: The Bard (Music) (1924), Allegory
of War (1915), Sir William Mackenzie (1924), Jack Miner
(1932), and War the Despoiler (War's Toll) (1915). Visual examination
and analysis of cross-section samples from these works indicated that
several applications of paint were superimposed to create the final colour.
Relatively thick underlayers of yellow, red, or green oil paint were covered
with thinner layers of paint and toned with washes to create the effect
of patinated bronze. The colours of the paint layers were created with
complex mixtures of pigments. Hahn's palette for these works included
vermilion, red lead, iron oxide pigments, emerald green, viridian, Prussian
blue, cobalt blue, barium sulfate, gypsum, calcium carbonate, and lead
white.
Analysis of a more modern work by Hahn, Madame X in
Mood Y, a plaster sculpture cast in 1932 and first exhibited in the
same year, also provided interesting information. The sculpture had a
glossy, creamy-white finish made up of four separate paint applications.
The earliest paint layer on the sculpture was found to contain the rutile
form of titanium white in a cellulose nitrate binding medium. A pure,
fine particle rutile pigment was not introduced in the United States until
1942, indicating that the surface finish was added at least 10 years after
the sculpture was first shown. Therefore the plaster must have been unpainted
when first exhibited.
>In contrast to the traditional patinated bronze faux-finish seen on many
of Hahn's plasters, several of Wood's works were painted to imitate a
silver-coloured metal such as cast aluminum or tin. Scientific analysis
of two such finishes, on Munitions Worker (1944) and Harvester
(1937), showed that in both cases the plaster substrate was covered with
a white paint layer, made of rutile titanium white in a cellulose nitrate
binding medium, followed by a layer of aluminum flake paint in the same
medium. The aluminum surface was then toned with thin washes of oil paint—overlapping
beige and blue washes in the case of Harvester, and an overall
blue-green wash for Munitions Worker. The use of a modern cellulose
nitrate paint in combination with oil paint is unusual, reflecting Wood's
creative use of materials. Although the layering of oil paints on some
of the other works showed extensive and problematic interlayer cleavage
and flaking, it is interesting to note that the mixed media technique
used on Munitions Worker and Harvester did not lead to such
problems.
>As well as providing an opportunity to learn about the materials and
techniques of Hahn and Wood, collaboration between staff of NGC and CCI
scientists led to the development of state-of-the-art packing methods
for three-dimensional plaster objects. This research, undertaken to ensure
the safe transport of the fragile sculptures to five different Canadian
venues, is described by Paul Marcon in the next article.
Further Reading
- Baker, Victoria. Emanuel Hahn and Elizabeth Wyn Wood: Tradition
and Innovation in Canadian Sculpture. Ottawa: National Gallery of
Canada, 1997.
- MacKay, Anne. "Treatment of a Painted Plaster Sculpture: The Bard
by Emanuel Hahn." Journal of the Canadian Association for Conservation,
Vol. 22 (1997), pp. 31–38.
- Laver, Marilyn E. "Titanium Dioxide Whites" in Artists' Pigments:
A Handbook of their History and Characteristics, edited by Elizabeth
West FitzHugh. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1997, Vol. 3, pp.
295–339.
<%
If template = "print" Then %>
|
|
