LES SAUVAGES DE LA MER PACIFIQUE

In the year 'An 13' (1804-1805) Dufour & Cie of Macron, France, published a prospectus advertising a 20-panel 'Tableau pour decoration en papier peint' entitled Les sauvage.\' de la Mer Pacifique. Designed by Jean-Gabriel Charvet (1750-1829) and translated into woodblock by Dufour (1752-1827), the wallpaper summarizes places, people and events encountered by Europeans during the eighteenth-century explorations of the Pacific Ocean. The entire work comprised 20 panels of vibrantly coloured images, extending approximately 2.5m high and 10.5m long, which could be purchased in entirety or in smaller groupings assembled into coherent decorative panels. This work was first exhibited at the 1806 Exposition des produits de I' industrie franc;aise where it was described as a 'produit de plus curieux en ce genre' [I]. In 1983 the National Gallery of Australia purchased a copy of the curious, and now rare, wallpaper in three large sections which contained the entire 20 panels with some duplication. It has since undergone a lengthy conservation treatment. When purchased, the NGA wallpaper was in a fragile state, although remarkably well preserved for a work of its type. The wallpaper had a number of attachments. A printed border representing a brown timber frame was adhered to all edges, under which was an earlier block-printed border of a ribbon and flower repeat in three colours. The panels were lined with sheets of rough, handmade laid paper primarily of hemp fibres, each approximately 41 x 52cm, attached with starch paste. Two of the sections were lined with a rough open-weave textile, and the third with a hand-woven linen canvas. This canvas lining was removed intact, and discovered to be block-printed in a three-colour jagged chevron design. It is possible it is an eighteenth-century wall covering. The wallpaper arrived rolled in large segments, with numerous tears, losses, and areas of friable and flaking paint. It received extensive stabilization treatment and was exhibited in 1988. At the close of the exhibition, a decision was made to reassemble the panorama in the original Dufour configuration and full conservation treatment was undertaken. This process began in 1992 and has involved the varied skills and expertise of 10 conservators. The panels were separated into the original 20 strips and backing material was removed. Disfiguring stains were reduced and tears and losses patched. Following this, the panels were individually lined and the wallpaper was reassembled on a permanent support. The friable and loose paint was consolidated and a narrow missing vertical strip was replaced with a reproduced section copied from the Dufour paper at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (which, although not complete, fortuitously included the area of concern). Smaller areas of loss were inpainted. Concurrently with the final phase of the treatment, examination of the materials and techniques was undertaken and thus far the following has been noted. The height of the work had been reduced to suit the room or rooms in which it was originally installed, and it now measures approximately 1.9m. Each design panel consists of sheets of handmade laid rag paper measuring approximately 43 x 54cm, attached along the top edge, and installed with the left edge overlapping the face of the preceding panel to form the panoramic scene. The panels were originally numbered for individual purchase and some traces of the numbers have been discovered transferred to the back of the lower border design and on the lower edge of panel 17. The image has been created by woodblock printing, stencil work, and hand brushwork. Hundreds of blocks have been used to create the images, for example up to seven different blocks per figure for the flesh tone. Stencils appear to have been used for broad areas of the design, including large cloud masses and the foreground grassy banks. Broad brush sweeps are visible in these areas. There are many areas of hand brush application, which appears to have been employed to correct printing faults and to join areas that should have been covered by over-printing. These arc visible in the foreground and in some of the figures. Further investigation using polarizing light microscopy has confirmed some of the pigment layers. Cross-sections were taken at damage sites in order to ascertain whether the work has a preliminary ground layer, as has been described in literature concerning these wallpapers. This layer has been variously described as a hand-brushed ground of white, chalk, and blue. Examination of the cross-sections has confirmed a primary ground of natural chalk, with a secondary ground of natural chalk mixed with a blue, probably indigo. Visual analysis of crosssections has confirmed the complexity of the work, with up to eight distinct layers identified. The medium used is known as distemper, which usually indicates a pigment bound in animal glue, although albumen and gums have also been used. An acid fuchsin stain applied to the cross-sections tagged some layers, indicating the presence of protein. Samples were sent to Dr Brian Singer at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for further analysis using GC-MS, HPLC and staining tests. The conclusions drawn from the results indicated that a proteinaceous medium is present and that it appears to be mainly animal glue. Samples were also taken for transmitted light examination and the following observed. The blue pigment in the costumes, foliage and ground appears to be indigo. The orange and red colours are various mixtures including red lead and wet-process vermilion; the green is verditer; the yellow is yellow ochre; and the brown tones include mixtures of ochres, haematite and black. Whites predominate and are used both alone, and in mixtures to give body and covering power; hence the common description of the wallpaper medium as 'gouache'. The whites include lead white, natural chalk, calcite and barytes. Iconography is being investigated with reference to a copy of the Dufour prospectus held at the National Gallery of Australia and by comparison with accounts on which the images are based. Susie Bioletti is senior paper conservator at the National Gallery of Australia, GPO Box 1150, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.