Conservation of a French Eighteenth-Century Painted Room

Abstract

Purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1869, the 'Serilly Room' was dismantled and shipped to London. During its history within the Museum it has been reconstructed, dismantled and rearranged twice. During reconstruction the alcoves and ceiling were displaced and it was not until the 1984 restoration programme that this was noticed. An 1850 plan of the Hotel de Serilly was found which showed the orientation of the room, with the fireplace wall adjoining the outside wall of the house. This explained why one of the 'window' alcoves was deeper than the other. There was in fact only one window; the deeper alcove was a recess, probably for a sofa. The wall behind ran parallel to the garden wall and a mirror could have hung there. Opposite the fireplace, high casement windows overlooked the formal garden; French windows opened from the garden and provided the only access to the room. As work progressed, the correct orientation of the room became apparent. The iconography of the alcoves relates to that of the panels, which have a seasonal theme, and their present locations are opposite to where they should actually be. The ceiling, too, would ~eed to be turned through 90° to correlate the seasonal garlands held by the cherubs with the seasonal themes in the panelling below. Late nineteenth-century photographs show that the canvas lunette paintings, thought to be later additions to the room, had been replaced by mirrors. The paintings were reinstated in the 1970s and research during. the present conservation treatment indicates that they are most likely contemporary with the room. Records indicated that the room had been repainted at least twice since its acquisition by the Museum. The most recent repaint, applied in the 1960s, was a flat emulsion giving a dull yellow tone to the room, in no way complementing the fine decorative paintwork. Cleaning tests were made, only to find that the removal of this layer revealed a disfiguring dark brown paint layer. Analysis of the paint and ground indicated that the original paint was a subtle blue-white colour hidden beneath several layers of repaint and dirt. An insight into the nature of this layer is given by Nancy Mitford in her biography of Madame de Pompadour where she refers to a subtle'bluish-white and gold being used; further on she comments 'The horrible' gris Trianon', a dreary, yellowish grey, which now spoils so many French houses, was invented by Louis Philippe; nobody in the eighteenth century would have thought of using such a depressing colour to paint their rooms . . .'. Further cleaning tests proved the brown layer to be soluble in liniment of soap, an alcohol-based soap. Application with a swab was controllable, any residue being removed with white spirit. All the overpaint on the panels was removed by this method. A panel was removed to the Conservation Department for technical examination. Cross-sections indicated that the original