page_title: Conservation-restoration of Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic
section_title: 2010
hierarchical_section_title: Conservation-restoration of Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic / Conservation-restoration treatments / 2010
caption_attribution_description: Black and White version
context_page_description: The conservation-restoration of Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic refers to the on-going conservation-restoration treatments of American painter Thomas Eakins' 1875 painting The Gross Clinic throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. These treatments are a testament to the changing methodologies undertaken in the field of paintings conservation.
  The painting portrays surgeon Dr. Samuel D. Gross performing a surgical debridement on a boy with osteomyelitis of the femur for an audience of students in his clinic at Jefferson Medical College.
  The painting was subject to several conservation-restoration treatments both prior to Eakins' death and in the decades following, which altered both the structural integrity of the painting as well as its surface composition. Emergency treatment was undertaken in 1960 and 1961 by Theodor Siegel, conservator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to correct damage from previous restorations. The most recent treatment was performed in 2010 by conservators at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to correct problems resulting from the 1961 restoration as well as the previous restorations.
context_section_description: Following the purchase of The Gross Clinic by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2007 and after considerable research and discussion, the decision was made to conserve and restore the painting once more. The ultimate goal of the treatment was to both correct damage done by earlier treatments and restore the tones of the paint to reflect Eakins' original intentions, which was made possible by extensive research on Eakins' technique not available to earlier conservators. This treatment was performed by conservators Mark Tucker, Allen Kosanovich, and Terry Lignelli.
  The first step concerned the removal of the varnish applied by Siegl in 1961, a synthetic resin called poly(n-butyl methacrylate), which was prone to discoloration and loss of solubility, making it more difficult to remove as time went on. Taking place over the course of several weeks, the removal of this varnish allowed conservators to view what was left of Eakins' original paint and what had been retouched by earlier treatments. A new, synthetic resin varnish, MS2A, was applied to the surface which both evenly saturated the colors of the painting while isolating the original paint from the retouching, should it need to be removed in the future.
  An 1875-1876 india ink and watercolor reproduction created by Eakins, the 1917 photograph, and 1925 reproduction were used as a guide for conservators to retouch the painting. The conservators used paints made of lightfast pigments ground in a colorless synthetic resin to retouch the painting. Smaller areas where paint had been flaked away were the first priority, followed by areas where large swaths of colors and tones had been altered. The area of the amphitheater's opening, in which a dark glaze had been removed, was restored to more closely resemble the small amounts of dark paint that remained as well as the 1917 photograph. Details of the many characters in the painting had been obscured due to earlier aggressive cleanings. The faces of orderly Hughey O'Donnell, Dr. Gross' son Dr. Samuel W. Gross, and Eakins were all restored to their original detail seen in the 1917 photograph.
  Following the completion of the treatment an exhibition, An Eakins Masterpiece Restored: Seeing The Gross Clinic Anew, was held between July 23, 2010 and January 9, 2011 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
caption: 1875-1876 India ink and watercolor reproduction by Thomas Eakins.
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