The Trustees of the National Gallery met on Monday, to
receive Mr. Eastlake's report, as Keeper of the Gallery, on the recent picture-cleaning operations. The report describes their extent.
The operators have been Mr. Seguier and Mr. Roden Brown. In 1844, Mr. Brown cleaned "The Brazen Serpent" and the "Judgment of Paris"; which Mr. Eastlake admits, at the time "looked compare, lively crude." "They have now.," he says, " acquired due mellowness of tone. Ordy one picture was cleaned in 1845-:--Guido's "Susannah and the Elders"; which was intrusted to Mr. Seguier. This gentleman was also selected as the operator for the campaign of 1846. At ameeting of the Trustees in August last, Mr. Eastlake stated that several pictures appeared- to him to require cleaning; whereupon the Trustees empowered him by resolution to "use his discretion in causing such pictures as appear to be in want of this treatment, to be cleaned and otherwise restored by competent persons." In the exercise of his discretion, Mr. Eastlake selected Velasquez's "Boar Hunt," Rabena's "Allegory of Peace," the Cuyp, and the "Bacchus and Ariadne" by T ,itian. Mr. Segnier did not recommend cleaning the Titian so much as the other pictures." 'Some of the Trustees, as well as Mr. Seguier and myself, had re- marked an inequality in the upper and left corner of this picture, arising from the canvass having become partially detached from its lining. Mr. Seguier stated that it was not possible to get rid of this inequality entirely, without relining the picture; but that operation I did not consider requisite. Tne picture was accord- ingly cleaned only to the extent proposed by Mr. Seguier, and the defect in the canvass was remedied as far as it could be. The Latter operation was the only one coming under the head of restoration which was considered necessary in the late cleaning."
"The Velasquez and Cuyp were freed from the darkened varnish which oh- soured them." In the latter, two light spots, the result of former restorations, have disappeared under the process. "The Velasquez speaks for itself."
"The Rubens may be said to have been long buried under repeated coats of yellowed and soiled varnish. It was found that these could be removed with per- fect safety, as the surface of the picture had that extreme hardness which the werke of this master above all others often possess." . . . "The preserva- tion of the most delicately-executed details in this picture is a proof of the care With.which the surface has been cleaned. Lest, however, it should be supposed that glazings may have been removed with the soiled varnish, I beg leave to ob-
serve, - serve that an experienced picture-cleaner is not likely to be deceived on such points. An experienced picture-cleaner knows from long habit the general na- ture of the materials used by the great painters, and can distinguish between such materials and the modern varnishes.* Mr. Eastlake attributes any apparent difference in the aspect of this picture to contrast with those in a dirtier state which surround it.
Embodied in the report are several testimonials addressed to Mr. Eastlake by some of the-eminent artists of the day. Mr. Mulre,ady has "not discovered any sppearance that leads him to suspect that the pictures have been injured? Mr. Etty thinks the Rubens "especially" has been "judiciously and admirably done." He confesses that he had never previously liked the picture " because I could not see it" So pleased was he with the result, that he instantly consigned to Mr. Seguier a "magnificent bacchanalian, by Jordaens, to undergo the same Operation." Mr. Edwin Landseer wishes Mr. Eastlake to say to Mr. Seguier
how much obliged to him I feel for his judicious cleaning, which enables me to
see the merits of the masters.' "I feel assured," says Mr. Stanfield, "that particle of colour or glazing has been touched." The decision come to by the Trustees was that the report "made kr Mr. Eastlake i entirely satisfactory, and justifies the confidence whit they have reposed in his judgment in respect to the treatment of the pie,- tures in the National Gallery."
[This report may be satisfactory to the Trustees; but it will not be satis- factory to those of the public who take an interest in art. Mr. Eastlake gives no account of the process—of the chemical agents to which tbe paintings were exposed. His words "the preservation of the most de- licately-executed details," and the objection to clean the Titian "so much,' indicate that the cleaners arrogate to themselves some discretion as to the depth which they may penetrate. There is no evidence that the gene* terms of self-approval are borne out by the facts, or that the public pro- perty is safe. Assuredly there ought to be inquiry by disinterested parties.]
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