On November 3, 1934, the Walters Art Museum opened its doors to the city of Baltimore. On that day, the Walters Conservation Lab was also established, making the Walters home to the third-oldest conservation lab in the United States. For 88 years, we have been dedicated to protecting and preserving a diverse collection of 36,000 objects from around the world.

This important conservation work continues today. The lab is filled with books, objects, and paintings in need of conservation. The Walters Art Museum’s inaugural Day of Giving is dated to November 3 in honor of our dedication to art conservation since the museum’s establishment; it is an opportunity for art lovers of all ages to come together to support the conservation of a painting in the lab.

Robinson Gifford, Sanford, The Arch of Nero, ca. 1871, oil on canvas. Estate of Mrs. Priscilla Ridgely Schaff, 1982

Currently being restored in the lab by Pamela Betts, Senior Paintings Conservator, is Sanford Robinson Gifford’s The Arch of Nero. Pamela has been working on this painting for the past two years to clean stains, repair tears, and repaint damaged areas of canvas to prepare the painting for its debut within the next several years. Over 750 hours of work have gone into restoring this magnificent painting. On November 3, we are asking for your help to complete this work.

The total cost to conserve The Arch of Nero is $30,000. In one day, our goal is to raise $15,000 toward these expenses. Your gift of $17.50 will restore 1 square inch of this painting. Other giving options are available to make an even bigger impact.

Pamela Betts, Senior Paintings Conservator, repairs a damaged area on The Arch of Nero.

More about The Arch of Nero from Pamela Betts, Senior Paintings Conservator:

The Arch of Nero by Sanford Robinson Gifford was bequeathed to the Walters Art Museum 40 years ago. A note in the painting’s file when it first entered the collection stated, “In need of heavy restoration.”

Gifford was a 19th-century American artist who specialized in landscape paintings. He traveled extensively to find scenic material, mostly along the East Coast of the United States, but also internationally. Gifford traveled to Europe in 1868, and while there he made several drawings and small painted studies at the site of the Arch of Nero. He used these studies to create this larger painting upon his return home in 1871.

The scene depicts an arched fragment of the Roman aqueduct Anio Novus, with part of a medieval tower perched on top. The arch, known as Ponte degli Arci, is located just outside of Tivoli, Italy. During Gifford’s lifetime, it was wrongly referred to as the Arch of Nero, a monument believed to be destroyed soon after Nero’s death in 68 CE.

At some time in the painting’s history, it was damaged, resulting in a small horizontal tear near the right edge of the sky. Prior to it entering the Walters collection, this tear was mended and the area was broadly repainted to hide the damage. Unfortunately, the restoration paint layers aged very differently than the original paint layers, causing the area to become dark and discolored.

During the painting’s recent treatment, the restoration paint was removed, revealing stains and damages associated with the mended tear to the paint below. Inpainting over the area with modern conservation materials that will not discolor with age (and will remain easily reversible) allowed us to largely conceal the inconsistencies that were once there. This means that once the conservation is complete, the broad expanse of Gifford’s atmospheric Italian sky can be enjoyed once again.

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