The Mystery from the Milwaukee Art Museum's Vault

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Is it or isn’t it? Therein lies the question, and the mystery, surrounding a painting that’s been sitting in the vaults of the Milwaukee Art Museum for close to 80 years. Shown only once in the early 1990s, the painting, simply known as Landscape, was initially attributed to the highly regarded English painter John Constable (1776-1837) since its donation to the museum in 1941 by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur N. McGeoch Sr. But all that has changed since conserving the painting earlier this year and discovering what lies beneath years of varnish and a mistaken identity—literally and figuratively.

“I was suspicious of the attribution from the moment I first saw the painting,” says Tanya Paul, curator of European art. Paul, who came to MAM in 2013, and her staff were planning a reinstallation in 2014 when the painting in question caught her eye—for entirely different reasons. “I knew it was good, but didn’t quite know what it was,” she explains, adding, “the file on the painting confirmed that my doubts were justified—as other experts who had seen the painting were also skeptical.”

Paul was able to confirm her suspicions with other experts in the field from the Tate Britain and Getty Museum. In fact, Scott Allan, a Getty curator, had just completed an exhibition on the artist who they believe originally painted the work and noted an interesting fact: One painting in the volume of the artist’s work shown in the Getty exhibit was missing.

So, did MAM have the missing artwork in its own collection? How could the museum go about uncovering its true identity?

Paul and assistant curator Catherine Sawinski proposed to the leadership of the Layton Art Collection that the work be the focus of the fall annual Layton Art Collection, and thereby the process of cleaning and restoration began. It took conservator Mark F. Bockrath a full week to clean and conserve the painting, according to Jim DeYoung, MAM’s senior conservator. “The treatment was relatively straightforward,” he said, noting that there are so many different conditions for artworks that timeframes can vary greatly for restoration projects. “There was a heavy grime layer on top of the yellowed varnish that had to be removed before the varnish could be safely removed.” Bockrath was pleased with the results, noting, for example, that tree branches and other detail had held up and were “surprisingly sturdy” once restoration was completed.

So, what exactly did the museum now have in place of the “Constable” work? A painting now rightfully called View on the Outskirts of Granville, (1830-1832) taken from a town in the Normandy region of France. Quite a distance away from Constable’s very English countryside.

But all the pieces now came together. The Granville area was popular with a group of painters from the Barbizon School, of which its leader was also a well-known landscape painter, Theodore Rousseau. The museum’s artwork was actually an oil sketch study done for Rousseau’s major 1833 Salon painting which now hangs in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. Rousseau would become known for his major influence on Impressionism, as he and other Barbizon School painters took to the outdoors to paint.

Curator Paul could see how the painting could be mistaken for a Constable as the two artists did share some similarities early on in their careers. “Both were part of the plein air painting tradition in the early part of the 19th century,” Paul says. “Particularly in his early years of painting (right around the time the Layton painting was executed c. 1831-’32), Rousseau looked somewhat like Constable, as he had seen his [Constable’s] work The Haywain in 1824 at the Salon in Paris and was deeply struck by it.”

But the similarities ended there. Details in the “Constable” painting included a French-style Mansard roof and odd rock formations not found in Constable’s work. Paul knew that the work itself was not done by an English painter. But with the help of MAM leadership, staff and other experts worldwide, a “lost” work has now been found and restored.

The restored work will be placed on view alongside the Rousseau in MAM’s collection, the 1855-1860 oil on panel Sunset Landscape (Coucher de soleil à Barbizon). In addition, the exhibition will include sections explaining the conservation and reattribution process. A highlight of the exhibition features an original copy of a catalog from 1873, in which the newly rediscovered oil sketch was last documented. Paul adds, “The results of this project have been exceptionally satisfying, allowing us to ‘bring back’ a painting that was otherwise ignored and forgotten and restore a Rousseau to the world.” Hence, mystery solved—and a painting comes “home” again—this time, with its rightful name and creator.

“Constable? A Landscape Rediscovered” will be on view Sept. 7-Feb. 17 in the Milwaukee Art Museum’s European Art Galleries, Level 2, Gallery S202. For more information, visit: mam.org.