Nelson-Atkins Museum gives a look inside the repair of a work of art

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A torn painting at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is providing interesting work for one conservator.

Mary Schafer is the associate painting conservator at the Nelson. While doing a catalogue of the museum’s French paintings, she discovered a large tear on Courbet’s “Portrait of Jo”.

The famous French painting is one of the first the museum bought. Now, as Schafer works to repair the piece, she must first remove the leftover paint from a previous repair treatment.

“The painting has been treated at least twice before,” Schafer said. “Once before it entered the collection, probably to fix the tear and then it was acquired in 1932 and then it was treated in 1944 because Jo’s face was described as being entirely repainted.”

That look of being repainted is the result of what Schafer calls heavy handed conservation work.

“In this case there were places where paint had been applied on top of original paint with no damage and so by removing all of that we’re able to see more of Courbet’s hand.”

Schafer adds that, “by the end of this treatment the damage should disappear and you should be able to look at this portrait as Courbet intended.”

Associate Curator of European Painting and Sculpture Nicole Myers says this work is a good example of Courbet’s work.

“It was really popular both with public and with art critics,” Myers said. “They all singled out his really spectacular ability to paint skin, the kind of pearlescent, translucent quality that you see in the portrait.”

“Courbet was one of the most influential painters of the 19th century. Impressionism that develops in the 1870s really begins when those young artists like Monet and Renoir are exposed to what Courbet was doing in the 1850s and 1860s.”

This kind of work is something Schafer is grateful to be a part of.

“This is a real honor to be able to be this close to the painting,” Schafer said.

This treatment could take about nine months to complete.

Other versions of the piece can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Museum in Stockholm.