Thomas Fearnley’s fixed drawings: materials and conservation
The National Museum holds a large collection of Thomas Fearnley’s drawings. The artist has in many instances applied a fixative on the surface of his drawings. Fixatives function to avoid the smudging of dry media such as soft pencil, charcoal and pastel.
Depending on the type of paper, the fixatives used by Fearnley have, over time, changed in a number of different ways. The main objective of the project is to identify why the aging varies and investigate how the drawings may be affected by various climatic factors. What influences how a specific fixative degrades over time?
The research project examines Fearnley’s drawing papers. A small selection of his fixed drawings will also be investigated. The selection represents different periods of Fearnley’s artistic production and fixatives with varying appearances. The artworks will be analyzed to identify whether Fearnley’s use of fixatives has changed, depending on his location and period. The project focuses on whether there is a connection between the contents of the paper and the appearance of the fixatives.
Project participants
This PhD research project is carried out by Tina Grette Poulsson, paper conservator at the National Museum, and is connected to the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE), which will conduct the chemical analysis. The doctoral advisors are prof. dr. Ella Hendriks, prof. dr. Klaas Jan van den Berg, and prof. dr. Robert Erdmann. The research will be carried out in the period 1.3.2023–28.2.2027 and culminates in a monography.
The first photo of the drawing has been illuminated by standard lighting; the other has been illuminated by UVA radiation. In this drawing, the color of the fixative has changed to yellow-brown. By using UVA radiation, the fixative becomes fluorescent, increasing the visibility of the fixative.
Background
Prior investigations of two of Fearnley’s drawings from 1832, constitutes the basis for the project. The research was conducted in collaboration with the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands in the period of 2013–2016. In both drawings, Fearnley has applied skimmed milk as a fixative, with different long-term effects. On one of the drawings, the fixative has changed to a yellow-brown color; in the other drawing, the fixative seems to have protected the paper from discoloration. The research was presented at the CATS-conference in Copenhagen in 2016.
You can read more about the research on Fearnley’s use of fixatives in the text “Thomas Fearnley en route: a 19th-century artist’s choice of drawing and fixing materials” written by Birgit Reissland, Tina Grette Poulsson, Henk van Keulen, and Ineke Joosten, in the book Studying the European Visual Arts 1800–1850. Paintings, Sculpture, Interiors and Art on Paper, edited by Joyce H. Townsend and Abbi Vandivere (2016). The book can be downloaded here.
The IPH Congress
At the congress “Analysis of Paper” for the International Association of Paper Historians (IPH) in Oslo in September 2024, Poulsson will present the ongoing investigation of Fearnley’s drawing papers. Read more about the congress here.