Saving One of Western Art’s Most Iconic Paintings
For nearly 100 years, he’s been the star attraction in the palatial portrait gallery of The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, a turn-of-the-century estate in tony San Marino, California. Today, he lies on a table in a small, chilled room above some administrative offices, surrounded by surgical tools, looking more than ever like a vulnerable boy on the cusp of adolescence, playing dress-up in a cavalier’s clothes.
He is Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy, the famed 1770 portrait of a young child in a blue satin doublet, cape, and breeches, holding a beplumed wide-brimmed hat—a kind of English Civil War cosplay popular for masquerade balls in the 18th century. Watching over him is Christina O’Connell, the museum’s unflappable senior paintings conservator. Charged with cleaning, preserving, and repairing the world-renowned art collection, O’Connell has just embarked on a groundbreaking two-year conservation effort, dubbed Project Blue Boy.
This isn’t O’Connell’s first peek at the raw, worn edges of ’s canvas. When she arrived at The Huntington four years ago, her big inaugural project was transferring from his ornate, early 20th–century frame to a more historically appropriate 18th-century frame. Now, she has removed that frame to get a closer look
