Infrared reflectogram NPG 2094, After Hans Holbein the Younger, William Warham; ©National Portrait Gallery, London

This display of five pairs of paintings explores the production of copies and versions, drawing on research undertaken as part of the Making Art in Tudor Britain project. Using technical examination techniques including microscope examination, dendrochronology, x-radiography and infrared imaging to consider the differences between painted versions at every stage of making, the display explores the use of patterns and workshop practice. The National Portrait Gallery’s beautiful 16th century copy after Holbein’s portrait of William Warham is featured with its infrared reflectogram (right) – more details of this image can be seen in our gallery. More information about this fascinating display, and further infrared images by TSR can be found here.

More research from the MATB project has been made available in an online database which can be accessed here.

For the very first time, Waddesdon Manor brought together Chardin’s four versions of ‘Boy Building a House of Cards’ to form a small and compelling exhibition of the artist’s genre paintings. Tager Stonor Richardson were lucky enough to examine two paintings for the exhibition, which could then be compared with technical images of the other versions of the same subject, to help unravel the evolution of the artist’s revolutionary motif. Continue reading “Taking Time: Chardin’s Boy building a House of Cards” »

Rubens’ Cain Slaying Abel has returned to display at The Courtauld Gallery after conservation treatment Continue reading “Rubens’ Cain Slaying Abel” »

Professor Susie Nash’s catalogue for Sam Fogg’s exhibition of Late Medieval panel paintings held at the New York gallery of Richard L Feigen & Co. Inc. is sumptuously illustrated with technical images of the paintings under study, including infrared reflectograms by TSR. Available here from the publisher Paul Holberton.

Our infrared examination of Paul Klee’s Small Harbour Scene at the Victoria Art Gallery features in Jonathan Benington’s article for the September 2011 issue of The Burlington Magazine. The painting incorporates two paper fragments mounted on the reverse of another rejected painting on cardboard, a recycling that Benington explains was likely prompted by the scarce availability of materials in Munich in 1919. Infrared reflectography revealed the presence of two figures unrelated to the upper composition drawn beneath the paint layers. These belonged to an independent drawing made on the paper fragment before the support was assembled for the Small Harbour Scene. Benington compares the drawing to other works of the period and suggests a date of 1918-19, immediately preceding the painting.