Cynthia Stow, Art Conservation and Tennessee Portraiture

You might ask what art conservation has to do with Tennessee material culture, but the work Cynthia does not only keeps our state’s treasures in a stable form to last for generations, it also has given her a unique view and visual expertise when thinking about the formal aspects of Tennessee’s art history. We’re going to delve into that perspective and learn more about the role of a conservator and also hear about an exciting project Cynthia has been working on around two of Tennessee’s most prolific 19th century painters.

Transcript

Speaker 2 0:06

Welcome to another Made in Tennessee podcast, the program that delves into the stories behind collectible art and antiques from the state of Tennessee, the makers who brought them to life, and the cultural and historical context that shaped their creation. I'm Sarah Campbell, Drury, and I'm here with Celia Walker. We're excited to be speaking today with Nashville-based art conservator, Cynthia Stow. And you might ask what art conservation has to do with Tennessee material culture, but the work Cynthia does not only keeps our state's treasures in a stable form to last for generations, it has also given her a unique view and visual expertise when thinking about the formal aspects of Tennessee's art history. We're going to delve into that perspective and learn more about the role of a conservator and also hear about an exciting project Cynthia has been working on around two of Tennessee's most prolific 19th-century painters.

Celia Walker 0:59

That's right, Sarah. Cynthia has worked with paintings from around the world over the course of her career. And during that time, she's examined important artworks at a microscopic level, giving her a deep understanding of the ways Tennessee painters created their canvases. Cynthia earned her BA in art history here at Vanderbilt and her MA and Certificate of Advanced Study in the Conservation of Historic Works and Artistic Works through the Cooperstown Graduate Programs in Cooperstown, New York. She founded Cumberland Art Conservation, which I'm sure many of you all know here in 1978 and became a critical resource for museums, galleries, and collectors over the next four decades. And during that time, she and her business partner, D Minot, conserved hundreds of paintings and also worked on short-term and grant-funded projects for institutions around the country. Welcome, Cynthia.

Cynthia Stow 1:52

Thank you so much. It's a real honor to be here.

Celia Walker 1:55

We're glad to have you. Let's start with some background for listeners who may not be familiar with art conservation. What does the job entail and how did you become interested in art conservation?

Cynthia Stow 2:06

Well, I like to draw the distinction between conservation and restoration. Conservation involves not only the restoration of a piece of art to restore it to an exhibitable condition and appearance, but also it involves the promotion of the lifespan of the piece using chemically stable materials and honoring the tenet of reversibility so that in case anything that I do has to be redone in the future, my work can be undone with no harm to the original object. That's so important.

Sarah Campbell Drury 2:50

And so what got you interested in all this to begin with?

Cynthia Stow 2:54

I have always been interested in art. My parents exposed me to art at a young age, and I have always loved museums and looking at paintings. I was an art history major at Vanderbilt. I loved that field, but I certainly didn't want to go on in it and become a teacher. One of them was art conservation. I never knew the field existed. I started looking into it, and within a very short period of time, it's what I had to do. It made, it excited me more than anything else had ever excited me. Being able to look at paintings on a very intimate level and wondering what happened to them, what caused this damage, how can I fix it? It's sort of the behind-the-scenes work of a museum. And I've always loved that behind-the-scenes type of endeavor. I was fortunate to be accepted into the Cooperstown graduate program directly out of college. Oh, yes. Conservation in the past has been largely through apprenticeships with master conservators. But since the mid-60s, in this country, it is more often one more often learns it through graduate programs. When I started out in this field, there were two degree-granting graduate programs in art conservation. Now there are three in this country, and none of them accepts more than 10 people a year. There are several programs in Europe which are very good, but only three in America. Sounds like we're lucky to have you here.

Sarah Campbell Drury 5:06

Well, and Cynthia, I know it's been difficult since you retired to find people to train professionals to refer some of our clients to. So I mean, is this an area that you feel like is ripe for more young people to go into?

Cynthia Stow 5:20

If it calls to you, yes. I mean, it's what you have to do. I really look at it as a calling. The competition is so stiff, and one has to have a background in art history, studio art, and chemistry and physics. And most art history people don't have that. Most chemistry people don't have that kind of background. Not only do you have to have the uh academic requirements, but you have to have practical experience working with a good conservator. That puts a lot of years onto your ticket. And most people, by the time they reach their 30s or even early 40s, don't want to spend more time, three or four years, in graduate school.

Sarah Campbell Drury 6:13

So, Cynthia, what are some of the most interesting paintings that you've worked on?

Cynthia Stow 6:18

I knew you were going to ask me this. Lots of people ask me this, and it's a very difficult question to answer because it depends on what one's interesting. If I'm interested in artistic importance, certainly for me, the most interesting paintings would be a few of the Monet's that I've worked on through the years. They're just so beautiful. They have been from both museum and private collections. They've been very well taken care of, as has most important, valuable art. So the problems are usually just aesthetic. They need to be cleaned. The varnish has gotten discolored or there's dirt on the surface. And with the Monet's it was so much fun because it had to be done under the microscope. And I used these little swabs that were wrapped on toothpicks to dig around in the crevices of the paint. And it was like looking at a little southwestern landscape, you know, through the microscope. That was a real pleasure. There are other paintings that have cultural significance or historic significance. And so it's an honor to work on those. I find those very interesting because I start wondering about the people whose image I'm cleaning or restoring. And that I find fascinating. And probably the third category of paintings that I find interesting are those that present terrific problems. And solving those problems is a lot of fun and a challenge, can be. Most of them emanating from efforts that people have tried in the past, and I have to undo other people's work. But I find all of those various types of projects real interesting, but for various reasons. So I can't answer your question directly.

Sarah Campbell Drury 8:30

It must be very satisfying to feel that you've improved the appearance of something and see the work that you've done, you know, the before and after photos.

Cynthia Stow 8:40

Well, not only that, but to know that I have done something to promote the painting's life so that it will be okay. I mean, exhibitable and structurally sound for X number of years until inevitably it'll have to be cleaned or lined or repaired again. Because everything does have its lifespan. But I want to make sure that what I've done to it can be easily undone.

Celia Walker 9:19

It's interesting to hear about uh repairs that have not been done correctly. And it brings up a question in my mind, and that's some of our listeners are new to collecting and they're just getting started. What should they consider when they're thinking about buying a painting that might be damaged?

Speaker 9:37

Well, you know, that's an interesting question because I think that whether a painting might need work or not, if you can take that painting on approval to a good conservator so that you can get an objective evaluation of what the painting might or might not need. And if work needs to be done, an estimate maybe can be given at that time. Perhaps the person can use that as a bargaining tool, perhaps not in the purchase of the painting. Trevor Burrus, Jr. We see that sometimes at auction.

Cynthia Stow 10:12

People will bring their conservator with them to look at the painting so that they can advise them on how much that's going to cost so they can factor that into the purchase price. I think that's a very wise move for any collector to make.

Sarah Campbell Drury 10:27

And so do you have any advice for our listeners on protecting the paintings they already own?

Cynthia Stow 10:33

Well, we're talking about oil or acrylic paintings. I'm not talking about works of art on paper. Um I think there's some obvious things that one should not do. We don't put paintings in bathrooms that have showers and are used heavily. We don't put paintings in kitchens. Splatters. Oh, splatters and just, you know, grease and stuff that goes through the air will deposit itself on the surface. Um I hate to say it, but it's uh not a great idea to put paintings over fireplaces, particularly in older houses where it is a log burning fireplace, and the draft frequently comes right up over the mantle and deposits soot and sometimes a fair amount of heat right on the painting itself. But I tell you, the most important advice I can give anybody is don't try to do it yourself, whatever it is. Do not try to clean or repair or do anything that's gonna change that painting. Because you don't know what you're doing. And you don't know, more importantly, you don't know if something's gone wrong or if it has gone wrong what to do about it. So just don't touch it. Don't dust it either. Don't dust it? No. I don't want anybody taking a rag and rubbing it across the face of a painting. I don't want a feather duster doing the dusting because that feather can get caught in any loose paint and just pull it off. If anything has to be done, I'll go back on what I said. I have a soft, good quality bristle brush and I can brush dust off. It's time consuming, though. Most people don't have that kind of time. But so I'd rather see the dust sitting on the painting than to have a bad dusting job. So don't do it.

Sarah Campbell Drury 12:56

Good advice. And and no attics or basement for paintings, right?

Cynthia Stow 13:00

Yeah. I mean, if you're comfortable, the painting will be comfortable. That's my bottom line. You know, as far as temperature, 70-ish degrees, humidity, 50% about whatever you like, the painting will like.

Celia Walker 13:18

It's good advice. So I want to get to a project that I know you've been working on that's pretty exciting about two brothers who painted probably thousands of portraits. Well, certainly many hundreds in Tennessee in the 19th century. Washington Bogart Cooper and William Browning Cooper. Can you tell us a little bit about how you became interested in the Cooper brothers?

Cynthia Stow 13:42

Well, I moved back here in 78 to set up my business, and I was the first professionally trained painting conservator in this area of the country. Many of the privately owned paintings I started out working on and ended up working on were family portraits. Many people would think that that's a very boring subject matter, but I loved it. I mean, it's sort of my people magazine mentality, you know, of thinking about these people and what they who they were, what they did. At any rate, many, many, many of these paintings were painted by one of the Cooper brothers. They were the painters in this area of the state. There were other artists who passed through periodically, and there were certainly some artists who worked on their own populations, mostly in East Tennessee. But the Coopers were the Middle Tennessee and actually West Tennessee, too, painters. Now from what Celia just said, you can see that their initials are both W. B. Cooper, and on the rare occasions that either one of them ever signed a painting, it was always W.B. Cooper. So Washington was much more widely known than William. He was known as the man of a thousand faces because he was so prolific. Almost everybody that I have ever worked for says, Oh, I have a Washington Cooper. And sometimes I would have to say, No, you have a William Cooper. Over the years, I mean, I I was practicing here for 45 years, and over the years I got to the point where I felt very confident in telling the difference between the two. I cannot tell you how I know the difference. It's just like you know the difference between your children. Um there are certain stylistic differences, there are certain differences in handling the paint, um, certain details that are different from one brother to the other. So I became very interested in the Coopers as a pair and who painted what, how I could distinguish between the two. I'm currently in the process of doing what I call a database on each of their paintings first by listing them. And I mean, I'm up to almost 500 for Washington, and that's just from a short period in his life. So I have no idea how long how many they're going to end up being. But I want to know who the sitters are, what their life dates were, and by that, if we don't know uh from documents when the painting was painted, I can sort of figure out from their costume and from the age appearance, you know, when the painting might have been painted. I want to get a chronology of Washington's paintings. Well, and Williams, too, but since Washington was so prolific. Um a chronology of his paintings and determine whether there are distinguishable stylistic differences as he developed, as he went through his profession. I don't know about that yet. I'm also convinced that in the later part, well, both of the brothers generally their careers were from 1830 through the end of the century. That's a long period to be painting. And I am quite convinced that toward the latter part of the 19th century, the two of them might have worked together on paintings, particularly large paintings. After the introduction of photography, it was not unusual to take a photographic image and project it onto a canvas to make an outline of the figures. This was done frequently with kids' portraits. A family would have, you know, a group portrait of their children painted. But on these large paintings, you know, I look at some of them and I think, oh, that that's a William head. That's definitely by William. And then I look at the hands, and it's, that's Washington. William knew how to paint hands much better than Washington did. Anyway, it it gets very confusing. And um, so I just think with some of these larger projects, that perhaps both of them collaborated.

Sarah Campbell Drury 18:57

And so as we move further into the 19th century, do you also think that they perhaps copied works by other Tennessee artists?

Cynthia Stow 19:08

Well, I know that in earlier in Washington's career, say in the 1830s and 40s, sometimes families would want a copy of a painting that had been done of their father or grandfather. And here in Tennessee, the most famous painter was Ralph E. W. Earl, who was Andrew Jackson's court painter, if you will. So I've come across several paintings that I know are by Washington, but they are copies of Earl's. Earl had a very distinctive way of painting, and Washington never had the same style. But these are definitely Washington's paintings, but in Earl's style. So I think he would paint, you know, a copy of an Earl painting for the grandson or whatever.

Sarah Campbell Drury 20:08

Sure. Yeah. Because sometimes both, you know, you have multiple family members. Yeah, only one portrait.

Cynthia Stow 20:13

You still do. You still do. To this day.

Sarah Campbell Drury 20:20

Do you what can you tell us about the training that William and Washington Cooper had, the art training? Were they were they studying up east with these important painters, or were they kind of homegrown artists who just had a really uh a lot of talent?

Cynthia Stow 20:37

Washington, by and large, was self-taught. And I use that in a very broad sense. He might have worked under, you know, some other painters, but I mean they it would have been local. And he certainly travelled up east to see exhibits, specific exhibits in museums, and he might have worked with some artists in the Philadelphia and New York area for short periods of time. William, on the other hand, being the younger brother, Washington sent him to Europe to study. And he worked with several painters who were uh set up in Italy mainly.

Sarah Campbell Drury 21:28

And was now was Washington the older brother or William?

Cynthia Stow 21:31

Washington was the older. He was older by 11 or 9, 10, 11 years.

Sarah Campbell Drury 21:38

Oh, okay. Oh, sure.

Cynthia Stow 21:45

But I guess being the baby, you know, he got sent off to get the real education. And he came back to Nashville, but he also traveled and did a lot of work in Memphis and down the Mississippi. In Natchez and New Orleans. So I have come across a number of paintings in cities south of here that are definitely Williams.

Sarah Campbell Drury 22:14

Now, of course, one of the other uh portrait painters that was painting around that time in Nashville was George Dury. And I know sometimes there's a little bit of confusion. I'll walk into a home and somebody says, oh, you know, this is a a Washington Cooper portrait, and then we dig a little deeper and we decide that no, it probably was painted by George Dury. Do you have some tips on being able to tell the difference between a Cooper and a Dury?

Cynthia Stow 22:39

I think it's fairly easy, but it's just a matter of, you know, if you will, connoisseurship. Duryes are very interesting for a number of reasons. For those people who don't know, I mean, George Dury came over here from Germany in later in the 19th century and set up in Nashville. He was one of the first photographers here. And when I was a kid, we had Dury's art and photography stores all around town. And I only found out much later that, well, that was George who started all of that. So George was a photographer and a portrait painter. Frequently, he would have a rectangular canvas and project a photographic image onto the canvas and paint the portrait. Many of these were then framed in a rectangular frame that had an oval mat. The corners that were covered by the mat were left bare. They were not painted. When you take the painting out of the frame, frequently you'll see registration marks in the corners where he lined up his image before he outlined it. Also frequently, George would sign his paintings on the back very prominently, rarely on the front of the paintings. The Coopers hardly ever sign their paintings. It was considered an egotistical measure to put your name on a painting. This wasn't only here, it was everywhere. So a lot of 19th century paintings are not signed, or if they are, it's very discreetly. But George would sign his things on the back, so we know right away it's a jury. . I'm so glad he did.

Sarah Campbell Drury 24:42

It makes us so much easier for us today when they sign their paintings.

Celia Walker 24:47

Where I'm wondering, where can you find Coopers? If our listeners would like to go and look at some Coopers. And Durys. And Durys and Earls.

Cynthia Stow 25:00

The easiest place to go is the Tennessee State Museum, which has a fine collection of Tennessee portraits and not only Middle Tennessee, but many from East Tennessee as well. It's very interesting to compare those artists with what we see here in this area of the state. The differences, the stylistic differences are very different and very interesting. But I would say the State Museum, they are also throughout the historic houses here, whether it's Traveler's Rest, The Hermitage, Carnton down in Franklin, those come to mind immediately. Belmont and Bellmead mansions as well have many examples of these painters.

Celia Walker 25:56

And that also makes me wonder, I know you alluded to this briefly earlier, but what is it about portraiture that interests you?

Cynthia Stow 26:05

Well, as I said, it's like, who is this person? It's the People magazine mentality of wondering who these people were. And the longer I spend with a painting, I feel I know the subject. And there were so many paintings, you know, I would call by their first names. And then there were ones that I did not like as I got to know them. And they would be Mr. or Mrs. so-and-so. But many of them were by their first names. And I just love that intimacy getting to know that person on this weird level. And so that has made me interested to know more about who they were in their day and what their connections were to Tennessee and specifically Nashville history and the interconnections between these people, the intermarriages is fascinating.

Sarah Campbell Drury 27:06

So I always think it's interesting when people come to Case or when they go to a show and they purchase a painting of somebody that they they don't know. I mean, oftentimes they don't know who the subject was, sometimes they do, but often it's not anyone with an actual connection to their own family. I wonder what it is about a portrait that grabs people's imagination and makes them want to actually purchase something like that. I mean, you you see this with miniature portraits, and you see it with oil on canvas paintings like the ones we've been discussing today.

Cynthia Stow 27:43

Sometimes the painting has some real aesthetic value to it. It's very well painted or this the subject is interesting. But you would be surprised. Lots of people want an instant ancestor. That's what I call it. I mean, they have no idea who this person is, but they want this person on their wall as maybe it's a symbol of their ancestors.

Celia Walker 28:15

Sometimes it's just a piece of history, right? I mean maybe they recognize the sitter and um and it's their way to enter on a a bit of a lower level. It seems like, Sarah, maybe you can buy portraits, they are a little undervalued compared to other genres. Yeah.

Sarah Campbell Drury 28:33

It takes a special person to love a portrait. I heard once that the magic of Thomas Sully's portraits was that he was so good at the gays and the look in the eye. And you know, when you know that, then you can start looking at a portrait, and you can you can almost tell when you're walking through a museum, oh, that's a sully because you're trained to look for the gays. But I think that's also what draws people in and makes them think, I want to look at that face every day when I come down for breakfast.

Cynthia Stow 29:01

Yes. Well, that's the aesthetic value of a painting. And certainly Sullys are like that. Sergeants are like that. I've worked on a number of Sargents, and they just had that spark about them that is mesmerizing. And I wouldn't mind waking up to a Sargent every morning.

Celia Walker 29:23

So can you recommend any places where people might go to research and learn more about uh the Coopers and about portrait painting in Tennessee?

Cynthia Stow 29:33

Actually, I can't. I think probably the best source is a book that was printed 35 years ago. It's one of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly issues from 1987. It's Jim Kelly's book that accompanies the exhibit at the State Museum of Tennessee portraits. And it's a book that I go back to regularly, even all these years later. It's a great resource. It's a wonderful resource. And I I don't know whether it's still available for sale or not.

Celia Walker 30:17

Secondary market, maybe. And Jim Kelly and Jim Hoobler were so important in bringing portraits into the state museums and preserving that history for us.

Cynthia Stow 30:28

They were. They were indeed.

Celia Walker 30:29

So we're back to the State Museum.

Sarah Campbell Drury 30:31

Yeah. What about the Colonial Dames Portrait Project? Is that a resource too that people can can use?

Cynthia Stow 30:38

It is. It is available online. If you Google Tennessee Portraits, their portrait project will pop right up. And I don't know there there are various ways you can explore that site, whether it's by artist or by subject or by date. Um in that sense, it's and by institution or privately owned, however you want to approach it. So it's very valuable.

Sarah Campbell Drury 31:06

Well, and you know, finally, I wanted to just mention a little bit about um people always ask, you know, what's it worth? And I think the great thing about portraits is that there's a portrait for every price range, right? I mean the most valuable portraits, let's just talk for right now about American portraits, would probably be George Washington, you

Cynthia Stow 31:28

Stuarts, Sargents.

Sarah Campbell Drury 31:31

And then in Tennessee, of course, we have we have the Coopers and we have Dury. We also have Earls, Samuel Shaver in East Tennessee, another very important thing. I love Shavers. Oh, his his portraits can be really wonderful. Enticing. Yeah. He was really good with children.

unknown 31:48 Sarah Campbell Drury 31:49

He was good with everybody, yeah. Um but you know, I mean I think the great thing is you can buy a wonderful portrait for $500, maybe even less. Um, and then you you begin to pay more as you have an identified sitter and an identified and respected artist.

Cynthia Stow 32:08

Well, and that sitter's importance in the culture or in his environment.

Sarah Campbell Drury 32:16

And we found too that that people love a portrait that has a background. Yes. A landscape or a room, that wonderful portrait by James Cameron of the family overlooking the landscape.

Cynthia Stow 32:30

I mean, it's just I did have the privilege of working on that. That was a fun painting. That was a real great project. That's at the Hunter Museum in Chattanooga.

Sarah Campbell Drury 32:43

And listeners, we will provide photos of some of these pieces that we've talked about on our Facebook page. Well, I could talk about this all day. But Cynthia, we we um we do have a limit here. So thank you for giving us this glimpse into the work of a painting conservator. And I hope that you'll be willing to come back after you finish your work on the Coopers and tell us more about what you discovered.

Cynthia Stow 33:05

I probably will be a dottering old woman by then. If I'm not dottering already. [Sarah: You're not.]

Celia Walker 33:13

Thank you. Our show is edited by Ben Hill. The music is by Kylie Daly. Thanks to J.T. Spangler and the folks at Vanderbilt University Studio 608 for recording this episode. And thanks to you all for listening.