Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

The Co urie r - Ma il 2 2 J une 1982 .(Features) Beauty is in the hand of the restorer THE 300-yHr-old beauty hH • -•t: "It'• • raatoratlon Job that • aurgaon would be proud of," ••Id the Quaanaland An Gallary director, Mr Raoul Mell– lah. Under inspect ion was Queensland's newest art maMerp~ce: "Portrait of a Young Woman" by Sir Peter Paul Ru– bens. The painting was unveiled during opening ceremonies at the ne"·Queens– land Art Gallery yesterday afternoon, by the Deputy Premier, Dr Edwards, but its beauty did not hint al the be– hind-the-scenes drama of its past. It's a tribute 10 the craft of art con– servators in England that Mr Mellish claims conlidently the painting as ii is now, hanging near the grand wa ter mall area of the new gallery, is su perior to Rubens' <1rig1nal work. bel ieved IO have been pa101ed in London around 1630. It was bought by the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation al a Chrislies uuc– tion in London in I 9'.0 for SI W,000. '.>1r Mellish bclie1es it will n,ll be long before the Ru ben, is wurth al lca,1 SI million. "It is a pain11ng of lremendi>us im– portance, and immediatel y becomes one of our major acquisitions," he said. Yet the painting was almost "written arr· in a road accident in London in 1953 1ha1 claimed the life of its then o"·ner, and a passenger in the same ca r. But 10 start more than 300 years ear– lier: Rubens' pain I ing is a copy of a Tit ia n which he saw in the collection of King Charles I in London when he was \'iSII· ing as a member of a diplomauc mis- . ,ion from the Netherlands between June, 1629 and Ma rch, 1630. By DES PARTRIDGE Rubens was an acquaintance of the Duke of Buckingham, the Ambassador 10 France for Charles, and Bucking– ham had arranged a number of com• missions for the Dutch-born master. . The subject of his " Portrai t of a Young WomaA" is believed to have been the sister of his second wife, Hel• enc Fourment. (The Titian original, "Young Woman with Fur", is now in the Kunsthistorischcs Museum in Vi– enna.) Says Mr Mellish: "The Rubens we now have is not really a copy; it is a por– trait in its own right." Rubens' great 1alen1 as an artist and diplomat impressed Cha rles I, who knighted him for his services 10 the dip– lomat ic mission. Charles also invited the artist 10 decorate the ceiling of the great banquet hall in Whitehall. The king was unaware that he would move from this spot to his execut ion in 1649. From London , the Rubens portrait \\as taken back 10 Europe, but ii was returned 10 England sometime in the 18th Century - and stayed in England until ii reac hed Brisbane about six weeks ago 10 be hung in the new gal- · lery. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art in I 878, I938 and 1953. It was at the end of the 1953 London showing that it was almost lost lo the world forever. Its then owner, R.F.W. Ca rtwright, (descendant of the family which had owned the painting for at least two cen- 1urie.~). and a passenger, were killed in a collision when taking the painting A CLOSF.- Ur or the dama2ed Rubens ~fore II painstaking restoration ,.-as ,·uried our by I tum of conservators al Cambridge Unhersily. AS "Portrait of• Young W_om • n" will be seen by visitors to "the new Queensland Arl Gallery, where the painting is hanging near the water mall area. Restoration was carried out at Cambridge University 10 pro- . duce a work which the Art Gallery director, Mr Raoul Mellish, says is better than the original. from the Roya l Acodemy.The pa int ing came oul of the crash with scars. but fortun ately, none of them was major. "The eyes, lips, and fingers. all im– portanl 10 the expression. escdped se– rious injury. and a restorat ion of a sort l' as carried out ,""Mr \-1ellish said. In 1980. when ii was learned that the Rubens was for sale, Mr Mellish "'as sent by the gajlery trustees 10 Londun for the auction. He sought out an old fri end , Profes– sor Micha el Jaffe, director of the Fitlwilliam Museum in Ca mbridge. a world authority on the artist and on 17th Century European art, who veri– fied that the painting on offer was def,. nitely the Rubens. He also recommend– ed that another restoration should be carried out under the supervision of Mr Herbert Lank. head conservator of the Hamilton Kerr Institute of Conserva- lion wit hin Cambridge t.: niver>ilv. ~fr Lank is conservator for the Queen's art collec1ion. ,\1 the institute. it was di, covered 1ha1 th~ painlin{s original canvas had been reinforced. ·,nd that I he e.tra can– v,ts had made the paint in~ ,t iff. " Now we have a painting that has the freshness of the original, thanh 10 the great skill the restorers used," sa1·s ~1r Mellish. " ll°s as though surgeons carried out a life-saving opera tion and restored the pa11en1 10 full and robust health"". The Rubens. certa in 10 become a drawcard 10 the new gallery. nieasures '11.8 cm by 68.3 cm, and, in a furthe r touch 10 show ii 10 bc,1 advantage, a ca rved and gilded frame of the style of the 17th Century was nrnde in London for it. CRACKS. the rrsull of a car crash, marred the portrait. The painlinfs ownrr was killed, bul the masterpiece ~ur•ived ,.ith minor dwmagr.