George Scharf and improving collection care and restoration at the National Portrait Gallery

Abstract

In the years following George Scharf’s appointment to the National Portrait Gallery in 1857, he had to face up to the conservation requirements of a growing collection. Before the expansion of museum collections in Victorian Britain, picture restoration had been a matter of satisfying the demands of private owners. But museums and galleries were in the public gaze and faced wider scrutiny, witness the picture cleaning controversies at the National Gallery. In supervising conservation work, museum professionals, often artists by training, had various audiences to satisfy: the visiting public, their museum peers, their trustees and the government. Scharf’s methodical approach to documentation makes his progress easy to follow. This paper identifies the nature of his learning curve, the process of both seeking and providing external advice, and the extent of his trustees’ interest.

Keywords

• George Scharf
• National Portrait Gallery London
• museum professionals
• conservation
• picture restorers
• networks of expertise
• National Gallery London