Label
2024, “Endangered Art: Reclaiming a Legacy”
David Johnson, a painter associated with the second generation of Hudson River School artists, was known for his role in helping to develop Luminism, an American landscape painting style. The loose brushwork of Maine Coast is typical of works he painted during the “Barbizon phase” of his career.
Conservators began by cleaning the painting and restoring small areas of paint loss with pure pigments. The treatment process revealed a second, earlier artist’s signature. Maine Coast was previously in a gray-painted wood frame that deadened Johnson’s luminous paint handling. It was replaced with a more appropriate frame.