2 minute read
A vision splendid
Caroline Fry (1978) works to preserve and restore MLC’s portrait of Reverend Dr Fitchett.
Above: The restored portrait of Reverend Dr Fitchett. Above Left: Caroline during her MLC days, 1975
Art Conservator and MLC alumna, Caroline Fry (1978), details her process for restoring a treasured College portrait.
Working on the aged portrait of distinguished Principal and founder of MLC, Rev Dr W. H. Fitchett, I feel like I’m time travelling back to my youth. I’m humming a song: ‘Old traditions play a part, greater than we know…’ It’s 1975. I’m in the MLC Assembly Hall, in a green checked summer dress hitched through my belt, and silver star pinned to a dark green cardigan. A suite of glowering portraits surveys the crush of girls, and a thousand teenage voices belt out the tune: ‘Green and silver my comrades’. I am no longer that restless schoolgirl, scrutinised by the collective gaze of long-departed Principals. I am a 60-yearold painting conservator, examining Dr Fitchett’s portrait on the easel in the laboratory of Grimwade Conservation Services at the University of Melbourne. The portrait’s painter, Sigismundo Zacutti, was an Italian artist who emigrated to Melbourne in 1887. Zacutti taught painting at various schools, including Xavier, MLC and PLC. His two daughters, Alba and Eloisa, attended MLC themselves in the early 1900s, adding to the special history of the work.
The portrait has come into the laboratory for treatment due to suspicious-looking colour changes and cracking in the paint layer. Cracks traverse the vertical axis of the painting, with tenting of the paint layer caused by shrinkage of the canvas. Further inspection reveals water staining and mould. The paint and ground layer above is extremely fragile, crumbling, and vulnerable. The reverse of paintings can be of great interest to a trained eye, not only revealing damages and deterioration, but also clues to provenance. A stamp on the back of the canvas indicates the prepared canvas was purchased from Deans Art Store, which has been trading here in Melbourne since 1854. Securing the fragile paint layer is my first priority. A ‘lining’ canvas is prepared to provide physical support behind the original canvas. Lining is a complex treatment but uses techniques and materials which can be readily ‘reversed’ by a conservator, in future, if required, without damaging the original materials. Art students will be interested to know that this ‘reversibility’ is the mantra of art conservation.
After the removal of the discoloured varnish, the full chromatic harmony intended by the artist is revealed. Instead of dull greys, vivid pinks and violets emerge. The background is a complex painterly abstraction composed of blues, purples, and greens. Painted with bold brushwork, facets of mauve and yellow shimmer in the drapery of the academic robes. The face of Rev Dr Fitchett is kindly and wise.
I have been honoured to work on this portrait and to reengage with my old school. And that means, signing off with: ‘And so, old school, I knew you well, goodbye, good luck, to you!’
