Lace! Under things*
11/13/2024
*Warning: puns and silly wordplay ahead! If that’s not your thing, this may not be the pLACE for you!
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Let There Be LIGHT(ening)!
10/10/2024
In the textile conservation lab, a three-piece 1890s cotton muslin ensemble arrived for treatment!
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Cleaning an Enamel Tray
10/3/2024
The dark grime on its surface is thick and unevenly embedded in the layers of a degraded wax coating.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Decluttering!
9/26/2024
After a very close and extended examination by our conservator , it seems certain Madonna and Child was originally part of an Italian Renaissance altarpiece.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: There! That’s better!
9/18/2024
You ever have had a project lingering around your house or work that just … bugs you? A thing that needs to be done if only someone would just DO it? This bodice was one of those projects!
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Brighter Skies over Waterloo Bridge!
8/29/2024
A few weeks ago, we posted about cleaning this landscape painting by British artist John Constable (1776–1837). The conservation treatment proceeded as quickly as we expected.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Investigating a Chuck Close Print
8/22/2024
Denison Museum at Denison University (Granville, Ohio) will show nine Cincinnati Art Museum pieces in different media from August 29 to November 29, 2024, in their exhibition Portraying Identity .
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Cleaning Mercury’s Landing Pad
8/8/2024
This week in objects conservation, we are cleaning marble.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Blue Skies over Waterloo Bridge
8/1/2024
We brought this lovely landscape, Waterloo Bridge by British artist John Constable (1776-1837), into the conservation lab to be examined for the British catalog project. Not conserved for more than 60 years, the painting’s varnish is now noticeably yellow.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Brightening up a George Bellows Print
7/25/2024
One of Bellow’s larger lithographs, Introducing John L. Sullivan, is torn in places along its right side; these tears could worsen with handling if not mended.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: “Toile” Tales
7/18/2024
Wanting to do a little more analysis of this piece, I took the jacket back to the museum’s Conservation lab and created a toile, which is like a test version of a pattern used to study and perfect how an original flat pattern works.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Removing Tarnish from Two Art Deco Lamps
7/11/2024
This pair of art deco lamps, designed by Joseph Urban, was last on view in 2022 as part of the exhibition Unlocking an Art Deco Bedroom by Joseph Urban.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Analyzing Vouet’s Venus
7/4/2024
A few weeks ago, two scientists from the Center for Archaeometry & Art Research Palatinate (CAAP) in Germany spent the morning in one of our European galleries to analyze Toilette of Venus, a painting by French artist Simon Vouet (1590–1649).
Behind the Scenes in Conversation: New seats, never been sat!
6/20/2024
It was time for the ladderback chairs in Gallery 218 to get a refresh! The chairs’ silk upholstery wasn’t original and over the years, while on display, the fabric had grown dingy and stained. Curator of Decorative Arts & Design Amy Dehan selected some appropriate, modern fabric in consultation with me, and I recovered the seats!
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Blue Dress Boogaloo?
5/23/2024
Remember the blue dress from a few weeks ago? This week she’s back—with a secret.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Who’s counting?
5/9/2024
Boy with Grapes, by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), is the 45th painting examined in the paintings conservation lab over the last eighteen months, for the British catalog project.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: The Light Touch
4/25/2024
This week in the textile conservation lab, I am working on a day dress dating to the 1910s. It has a very delicate silk net stand-up collar edged with a metal ribbon and stiffened with wire stays.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Reconstructing a Japanese Teapot Spout
4/18/2024
In our last post about the Miss Mariko Okinawa doll’s tea set, we discussed re-joining all of the tiny ceramic fragments.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: More than Just a Print
4/5/2024
Two prints by Lesley Dill featured in the recent post by Curator of Prints Kristin Spangenberg are now on view in Gallery 150. While preparing the prints for framing, I had the opportunity to examine them closely and photograph details that reveal the artist’s creative use of materials.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: A chemical peel?
3/14/2024
As paintings conservators, we may use chemicals, but we certainly don’t give facials.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Innovator of Printing and Design
3/7/2024
Two prints by Willim Hentschel came through the paper lab with old hinges and pressure sensitive tapes. The artist’s work is unlike any other in the collection.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Shoes with the Blues
2/29/2024
These elegant pale blue kid leather shoes came to the lab for a new storage tray and interior padding, but they are interesting because they bear tell-tale damage from a specific collection pest: silverfish.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Micromosaic Jewelry
2/22/2024
This week in objects conservation, we are working on several pieces of micromosaic jewelry made in Italy during the late-19th century.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Macro-Scanning Cézanne’s Still Life
2/15/2024
Last month, three Northwestern scientists brought their highly specialized scanning and imaging equipment to the museum and spent a week in our Paintings/Objects lab.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Putting Our Best Foot Forward
2/1/2024
Something is afoot with these shoes! Can you put your finger (or toe) on the difference?
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Reconstructing a Shattered Glass Shade
1/25/2024
This iridescent green shade came to the lab in a box of fragments. Piece by piece, I built the individual fragments back into a shade.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Cleaning a Visitor Favorite: Girl Eating Porridge
1/18/2024
This visitor favorite, Girl Eating Porridge, by French artist Adolphe William Bouguereau (1825–1905), was acquired by the museum in 1884, a mere ten years after the artist painted it.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Treatment of Cincinnati’s Galt House
1/11/2024
In my post of November 30, I promised to explain what it took to improve the appearance and the mechanical condition of Emil Klauprecht’s 1830s lithograph, Galt House.
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Small Wonders: Tiraz Textile Fragments
1/4/2024
Check out some small wonders from the world of textile artwork!
Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Reconstructing a Japanese Doll’s Tea Set
12/28/2023
These tiny ceramic fragments are part of a Japanese doll’s tea set. I am working on putting these pieces back together so that they can be displayed with their doll in the future.
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Toll Free: 1 (877) 472-4226
Museum Hours
Museum Shop
Terrace Café
Library
The Cincinnati Art Museum is supported by the generosity of tens of thousands of contributors to the ArtsWave Community Campaign, the region's primary source for arts funding.
Free general admission to the Cincinnati Art Museum is made possible by a gift from the Rosenthal Family Foundation. Exhibition pricing may vary. Parking at the Cincinnati Art Museum is free.
Generous support for our extended Thursday hours is provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.
General operating support provided by:
