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Vivid View
In collaboration with conservator Dr. Susan Buck, VIVID VIEW exhibited photographed paint samples from historic houses throughout Virginia.
Intersecting historical style with modern science, these microscopic views into cross-sections of historical paint layers reveal macroscopic trends. Colorful, abstracted images showcase historical paint as a prominent element of interior design, dictating how historical actors lived in, readapted, and reflected fashionable period taste.
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These colorful images of history convey practical, present-day implications for interpretation, dating, and insight into eighteenth-century buildings and interiors. Featuring paint samples from 13 historic sites both private and public, VIVID VIEW blurs the poles of art and science and highlights the latest efforts in historical preservation by revealing paint as an influential element in how we decorate and who we are.
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These colorful images of history convey practical, present-day implications for interpretation, dating, and insight into eighteenth-century buildings and interiors. Featuring paint samples from 13 historic sites both private and public, VIVID VIEW blurs the poles of art and science and highlights the latest efforts in historical preservation by revealing paint as an influential element in how we decorate and who we are.
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Wilton House Museum
In celebration of the 80 th anniversary of the restoration of Wilton, the museum commissioned an historic paint analysis by Dr. Susan Buck in 2013. Dr. Buck’s investigation uncovered a surprisingly intact paint history throughout Wilton.
Pictured here is a cross-section of paint layers from a bedchamber at Wilton. Though the sample is smaller than the top of a pencil eraser, 2-3 millimeters across, it is a layered document of three centuries of change.
Reading this cross-section from the bottom, the “first generation” light gray color was applied to all of the rooms at Wilton when the house was completed in the 1750s. Above this, the second-generation is a yellow-green color, then a fashionable light blue color applied in the 1780s. In total, thirteen generations of paint can be documented on the paneling, not including its 2022-2023 restoration to the original stone grey.
2
Eppington Plantation
This dramatic cross-section from the dining room’s fireplace mantel at Eppington (c. 1770), in Chesterfield County, Virginia illustrates what can happen to paints and varnishes when exposed to excessive heat. The earliest paints at the bottom of the cross-section are partially melted and deformed, and there are deep cracks extending downward from the top to the bottom of the very earliest paint coatings.
The repeated application of green paints in various shades suggests a desire to replicate the earliest paint color in subsequent refurbishments. The most intact woodwork cross-sections from Eppington contain 16 generations of paint.
3
Eyre Hall
This visually compelling image of a blue-flocked wallpaper has an equally compelling history. Found in the interior of a small closet off the parlor of Eyre Hall (c. 1758) when glimpses of a brilliant blue could be seen through small cracks in the later layers of limewash and paint, it was later revealed to be a blue-flocked wallpaper with a quatrefoil pattern. This visually compelling image of a blue-flocked wallpaper has an equally compelling history. Found in the interior of a small closet off the parlor of Eyre Hall (c. 1758) when glimpses of a brilliant blue could be seen through small cracks in the later layers of limewash and paint, it was later revealed to be a blue-flocked wallpaper with a quatrefoil pattern.
The paper itself is composed of flax fibers. The flocking fibers are dyed blue and green wool. Both flax and wool were typical fibers of traditional eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century flocked wallpapers. Pigment analysis shows that the deep blue base coat directly on top of the paper is composed primarily of very high quality Prussian blue and cobalt blue pigments, and the light blue print layer is composed of Prussian blue, cobalt blue, green verditer, and yellow ochre. The blue flocking fibers were adhered to this light blue block-printed paint while it was still wet.
As cobalt blue was not available as a pigment until about 1810, this wallpaper could not have been part of Eyre Hall’s eighteenth-century decoration. It is surprising to find this expensive wallpaper in a closet. Most likely, it was excess paper from another, more public, room in the house decorated in the nineteenth century.
4
Bel-Mede
This cross-section is from a privately owned (c.1770) house in Williamsburg, Virginia, which was moved to its current location from Southampton County in 1947. The current owners embarked on an architectural investigation of the house, including paint analysis, which revealed a bold and colorful array of original paint. Optical microscopy analysis showed that the original paints survived in every room, and the paint stratigraphy was remarkably intact and beautifully colored. The original paint colors were quite distinctive, including Prussian blue-based medium blue on the woodwork in the parlor and dining room, olive green paint on the woodwork in the entry hall, grain-painting on the doors, and most surprisingly, a pink exterior.
Paint analysis tells us a lot more than just what color a room was and when that color was applied. The choice and application of paint reflects the economic standing of a household, as well as its condition of care, taste, and values. This cross-section sampled from a dining room baseboard retains evidence of the room’s original blue paint, which was later covered by more practical brown paints and protective varnishes. The distinctive bluish sparkle of the cream-colored paint is a phenomenon of the pigment zinc white seen under reflected ultraviolet light. The presence of this material dates the layer to the mid-nineteenth century or later when zinc white was incorporated into architectural paints. Evidence of aging paint can be identified by the deep cracks in the layers, distortions to the surfaces, discolored varnishes, and clusters of dirt and black mold spores caught within later layers of paint. All of these findings help to tell a story about the evolution of this house and perhaps the financial condition of its early owners, who seem to have waited many decades between redecorating campaigns.
5
Clermont Farm
Silk fibers from an eighteenth-century lady’s shoe appear to float in inky darkness. Subjected to analysis under plane polarized transmitted light at 200 times and 400 times magnification, these silk fibers were taken from the degraded satin-weave textile remaining on the shoe’s heel. The image of the fibers under crossed polarizing light filters reveal them to be smooth and sinuous, lacking a central lumen indicative of plant fibers or a scale pattern indicative of wood. Now degraded to a dark brownish color, these silk fibers were originally pink.
This delicate lady’s slipper was discovered in a small closet below the stairs at Clermont (c. 1755) in Berryville, Virginia. In 1788, the closet was closed-up, locking the shoe inside. It was not until a recent historic structures investigation that the closet was reopened and the shoe discovered. Stylistically, the shoe’s design and fabrication – its shape, height, construction of the toe and delicate heel, the satin ribbon along the edges, and the remnants of the strap to secure it – date it to the 1780s period.
While the striking image of the fibers provides evidence of the shoe’s origin, it gives little information about why such a delicate and stylish lady’s shoe ended up alone in a closet just a few years after arriving in rural Berryville.
6
Montpelier
Few sites have undergone as transformative a restoration in recent years as Montpelier (1764–1812), the home of James and Dolley Madison. During the investigation of the drawing room, tiny fragments of red-flocked wallpaper were discovered on top of the window architraves, where they had been trapped under later layers of paint. As all of the room’s plaster walls were removed during a twentieth-century redecoration of the room, these fragments provide significant documentation of the history of the room’s wallcovering. Examination of the layers of paint along the edge of the wallpaper fragments dated the flocked wallpaper to the time of the Madison occupancy of the house. The wallpaper’s brilliant red coloring is in keeping with what is known of Dolley Madison’s taste.
On the left is the cross-section of the wallpaper fragment and on the right the same sample viewed with ultraviolet light. Materials and pigments respond to and reflect light differently allowing researchers better to identify the materials and their composition.
Seven distinct layers of materials, each behaving differently, compose the image. Reading from the bottom upwards: the starch paste adhesive, the fibrous rag-based paper, a thin layer of red paint, the uneven shellac adhesive, and the bright wool flocking. The red wool fibers are trapped by two later layers of wall paint. Exposing the sample to ultraviolet light highlights the wool flocking elements, and helps in discerning shellac (which autofluoresces orange) from paint and paste (which autofluoresces white) from paper.
7
Stratford Hall
This cross section from Stratford Hall’s dining room (constructed 1738) documents the paint history of an interior from 1795 to 1937. Each layer of color suggests the changing tastes that occurred with the passage of time. Visually displayed here is the evidence from two families whose multiple generations occupied Stratford into the twentieth century. It also records the site’s earliest restoration campaign.
In 1795, “Light Horse” Harry Lee and his wife, Anne Carter Lee (the parents of Robert E. Lee), enlarged and updated the dining room of Stratford Hall in a more neoclassical style. This cross-section records the six generations of paint. The final layer dates to 1937 when preservation architect Fiske Kimball directed a major restoration.
The wainscoting was originally painted a cream color with a thin resinous glaze (the bottom layer in this sample). This is followed by generation two: a gray primer and a green finish coating; and generation three: another bright green paint. This change from the initial cream color to the bright glossy green reflects a change in taste. The same color decorated the dining room at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.
The coarsely ground green paints in the second and third generations in the cross-section were made with the copper-based pigment verdigris in combination with yellow ochre and calcium carbonate. Though a brilliant emerald green color when first applied, verdigris will darken to almost black over time, especially when mixed with linseed oil. This darkening is quite obvious at the top surfaces of the two green layers where the paint was exposed.
Following the departure of the Lee family, Stratford Hall was occupied by the Stuart family. Their arrival coincides with generation four of the cross-section, when a tan paint uniformly applied. This was followed by a deep yellow in generation five. Because this yellow paint contains zinc white, we know it must have been applied after 1845 when zinc white became commercially available. The final painting campaign dates to the late-nineteenth century when the wainscoting was grain-painted to look like oak.
8
Mount Vernon
This multi-colored cross-section came from the exterior of a c. 1745 desk and ledger case in the collection of Mount Vernon (built 1734). This desk and ledger case was originally painted medium blue on a medium gray primer. Entirely stripped of its paint in the early- twentieth century, Susan Buck’s examination uncovered its colorful past.
The first generation of paint was made with Prussian blue, white lead, and calcium carbonate. The clumps of deep Prussian blue pigments in the original paint are typical of hand-ground pigments containing Prussian blue, which tended to clump causing uneven dispersal. It is also evident from the cross-section that the surface of the paint became blanched and dirty. This type of surface discoloration is typical of Prussian blue-based paints, which can bleach out when exposed to direct sun, become discolored when washed with caustic materials, and yellow over time due to being mixed with the traditional binder, linseed oil.
The evidence of frequent repainting found in this sample from the desk and ledger case – at least ten generations of paint – suggests that this important piece was freshened with new paint on a regular basis. This may have occurred when the room it occupied was repainted to ensure matching colorways. Or perhaps it was repainted when it was moved to a different space or acquired by a new owner. The discovery of such a rich and varied paint history on this object is surprising. It tells us that the object was generally well-cared for and continued to be valued during different periods of use.
9
Wilton House Museum
Returning to Wilton, this cross-section from the paneling in the southeast chamber is typical of the overall monochromatic paint evidence of this site. Revealing a preference for conservative colors, a regular program of repainting, and a consistent application of one layer of paint over another, Wilton’s sample provides a comprehensive paint history. It also indicates that the painted woodwork in the house was regularly cleaned before new paint was applied. Compare this cross-section with others in the exhibition where layers of dirt can be seen between layers of paint.
The orange paint found as generation ten in this room represents the (c. 1920) highly decorative painting scheme not revealed by the black and white archived images of the house during that time. The pale blue paint applied in generation twelve is the post-1933 paint applied in the chamber, closet, and rear stair passage. This type of comparative dating of paints helps to sort out some of the physical alterations to the building.
This cross-section documents the entire history of Wilton. In addition to charting its original decoration to its nostalgic restoration, the image provides a compelling backdrop for understanding the people who occupied its spaces, from the mid-18 th century to the early 20 th century, and all those in-between.
In celebration of the 80 th anniversary of the restoration of Wilton, the museum commissioned an historic paint analysis by Dr. Susan Buck in 2013. This effort to document surviving paint evidence led to the commissioning of an historic structures report in 2015. In 2017, Wilton exhibited Vivid View: The Art and Science of Paint Analysis, featuring a dozen historic sites across the Commonwealth of Virginia, as a result of these investigations. Thank you to the numerous people who, either individually or through preservation grants and restricted funds, made the study of Wilton’s paneling possible.
All photos were taken and enhanced by Dr. Susan Buck, and appear here courtesy of Wilton House Museum.