The Turner Drawings and a Keeper’s Diary: Preventive Conservation in the National Gallery, London in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Reports discussing the suitability of the National Gallery building in London and the state of its collection written during the mid–nineteenth century (1845–57) show several concerns related to what we would understand today as preventive conservation. However, a decrease in the number of later commissioned reports on this aspect during the second half of the century was understood by some scholars as a sign of declining interest in preventive measures. On the contrary, archival evidence exists that reports an ongoing interest in preventive measures in the gallery between 1857 and 1900, and secondary literature shows that the effects of the environment on paintings discussed during the mid–nineteenth century remained a concern during the second half of the century. Based on the illustrative example of the Turner drawings and the notes taken by Ralph Nicholson Wornum (1812–77), keeper of the National Gallery, in his diary, I argue that preventive measures discussed in the 1850s reports became common practice during the second half of the nineteenth century.