Layers of yellowed varnish have been painstakingly removed from a John Constable painting of Waterloo Bridge to reveal new detail of the early 19th-century Thames skyline and a bright blue sky.
The painting – the largest created by Constable – had been dramatically transformed by the conservation treatment, said Sarah Maisey, a senior remedial conservator for paintings at the National Trust, which undertook the work.
Experts spent more than 270 hours removing several layers of badly yellowed varnish that had obscured and dulled the detail of The Embarkation of George IV from Whitehall: The Opening of Waterloo Bridge, 1817.
“There had been some earlier tests which showed that this painting would respond really well to varnish removal, but it has been a particular delight to see the quality of the improvement,” said Maisey.
“There were challenges. It had been painted and varnished at different stages, so care had to be taken to ensure that the solvents being used to thin and remove the varnish layers didn’t also affect the paint layer. We are delighted with the final result.”
Constable, who mostly painted pastoral scenes, is believed to have been influenced by Canaletto’s depictions of water pageants in Venice. The painting shows the royal barge and other vessels on the Thames about to set off for the opening of Waterloo Bridge, which is in the background.
Constable is thought to have been present when the bridge was opened by the prince regent, later King George IV, on 18 June 1817. In 1942, it was replaced by a modern concrete structure.
During the Victorian era, the view that Constable painted was transformed, but St Paul’s Cathedral – seen in the distance behind the bridge – has remained visible for the past two centuries.
John Chu, a senior curator of paintings and sculpture at the National Trust, said: “Constable’s painting of Waterloo Bridge, full of the pageantry and colour of urban life, is a significant contrast to the quiet country scenes he is more famous for, such as The Hay Wain.
“This large-scale depiction of modern events and the London metropolis was a big departure at this point in his career.”
The painting was never exhibited in Constable’s lifetime, remaining in the artist’s studio until his death in 1837. It passed through several hands before reaching its current home, Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire.
After the conservation work, the painting has been returned to hang in the abbey’s library, where the panels and shelves are made from timber salvaged from the piles of the first bridge when it was dismantled in 1936.
