Photo by David Stover © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
On Friday, Nov. 20, I was privileged to be invited to the dinner at VMFA in honor of Frances Lewis. Before dinner, Mrs. Lewis had a personal tour of the new Lewis Decorative Arts installation by curator, Barry Shifman. At Barry's request, I accompanied them through the gallery tour in my role as the Conservator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts.
We arrived in front of the bay with the Jean Dunand red lacquer cabinet – one of the many artworks conserved for the reinstallation. Mrs. Lewis asked if we could open it. Although we initially told her we could not, I thought it would be worth a try to comply with her request on this special occasion. The latch on the cabinet is metal – one of those materials not to be handled by bare hands in a museum. Since I had no cotton gloves with me, I went in search of some kind of cloth. I found a clean, unused napkin and returned to the galleries and offered Mrs. Lewis and her guests the opportunity to see the interior of the cabinet.
One of the special privileges of being an art conservator in a museum is we are among the few trained and allowed to handle the art when necessary. I removed my shoes, carefully entered the display area and opened the cabinet to show the interior, which contains rows of lacquered drawers with lettered tabs. The cabinet may have been some sort of index card filing cabinet, although the records don’t tell us that for sure.
I asked Mrs. Lewis what she kept in the cabinet when it was in her home. She replied that she didn’t believe she kept anything in it. That may be one reason the interior remains in such pristine shape.
Mrs. Lewis and her guests were obviously delighted to get a peek inside this cabinet. Barry suggested we might have special days in the future, when the entire museum reopens, where cabinets and desks might be propped open temporarily to give visitors a rare look inside. What do you think?
Kathy Z. Gillis, Conservator, Sculpture and Decorative Arts
We arrived in front of the bay with the Jean Dunand red lacquer cabinet – one of the many artworks conserved for the reinstallation. Mrs. Lewis asked if we could open it. Although we initially told her we could not, I thought it would be worth a try to comply with her request on this special occasion. The latch on the cabinet is metal – one of those materials not to be handled by bare hands in a museum. Since I had no cotton gloves with me, I went in search of some kind of cloth. I found a clean, unused napkin and returned to the galleries and offered Mrs. Lewis and her guests the opportunity to see the interior of the cabinet.
One of the special privileges of being an art conservator in a museum is we are among the few trained and allowed to handle the art when necessary. I removed my shoes, carefully entered the display area and opened the cabinet to show the interior, which contains rows of lacquered drawers with lettered tabs. The cabinet may have been some sort of index card filing cabinet, although the records don’t tell us that for sure.
I asked Mrs. Lewis what she kept in the cabinet when it was in her home. She replied that she didn’t believe she kept anything in it. That may be one reason the interior remains in such pristine shape.
Mrs. Lewis and her guests were obviously delighted to get a peek inside this cabinet. Barry suggested we might have special days in the future, when the entire museum reopens, where cabinets and desks might be propped open temporarily to give visitors a rare look inside. What do you think?
Kathy Z. Gillis, Conservator, Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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