We’ve been following the Getty Research Institute’s blog, where they’ve been sharing progress into the study of Frederick Hammersley’s meticulous sketchbooks and notebooks. Donated by the Frederick Hammersley Foundation, the notebooks provide a key into understanding Hammersley’s efficent process. With exact specificity, Hammersley took notes on compositional variations, paint colors, types of paint, types of added mediums, stretcher bars, whether a painting was later reworked and much more. This copious note-taking not only allows art historians the ability to trace the origins of certain paintings, but also provides conservators incredible insight into the actual materiality of the works and the techniques used to produce them.
We’re intrigued to learn what the Getty Research Institute and the Getty Conservation Institute continue to uncover. Read more about their findings here.