Microscopically reweaving a 1907 painting | CONSERVATION STORIES

To ready Paula Modersohn-Becker's "Self Portrait" (1907) for MoMA's reopening in October, conservator Diana Hartman tackles the question of how to repair holes in the painting’s canvas. She figures out that a curved needle typically used in eye surgery might allow her to avoid removing the work from its original stretcher. And her inventiveness doesn’t end there: Using an adhesive made from a sturgeon bladder, she secures linen thread to the needle to darn the pieces back together with the help of a microscope. Hartman shows how she makes unobtrusive repairs, to keep viewers’ gaze focused on the portrait itself. “Just by doing this treatment,” Hartman says, “we’ve given a breath of fresh air to this painting.”


Artwork credits

Paula Modersohn-Becker. Self-Portrait with Two Flowers in Her Raised Left Hand. 1907. Oil on canvas. Jointly owned by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Debra and Leon Black, and Neue Galerie New York, Gift of Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder

Hugo Erfurth. Paula Modersohn-Becker with her daughter Mathilde. November 1907. Paula Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung, Bremen/©DACS 2015

Paula Modersohn-Becker. Mutter mit Kind. 1903. Oil and tempera on canvas. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Geschenk der Freunde der Kunsthalle e. V., 1946. © Hamburger Kunsthalle/bpk. Photo: Elke Walford

Paula Modersohn-Becker. Tête d’une Jeune Fille Blonde Coiffée d’un Chapeau de Paille (Head of a Young Blonde Girl Wearing a Straw Hat). c. 1904. Tempera on cardboard. Kunst-und Museumsverein, Wuppertal. © Medienzentrum, Antje Zeis-Loi/Kunst-und Museumsverein, Wuppertal

Paula Modersohn-Becker. Porträt des Rainer Maria Rilke. 1906. Oil on canvas. Sammlung Ludwig Roselius, Bremen


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The comments and opinions expressed in this video are those of the speaker alone, and do not represent the views of The Museum of Modern Art, its personnel, or any artist. 

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