‘MASHED POTATO’ FRAME TOO UGLY FOR FAMOUS PAINTING
Suitable antique replacement could cost upwards of $100,000 at auction
Benjamin West’s The Death of General Wolfe is one of Canada’s most famous paintings, reprinted in history books across the nation. But conservator Stephen Gritt minces no words when describing the frame around the work hanging in the National Gallery of Canada. It’s ugly and poorly made, he says.
“The frame has elements that remind you of a mashed potato with radiator paint on it. It’s just not good enough,” said Gritt.
So in early June, the National Gallery started raising money to replace it with a more authentic antique frame from the painting’s era.
The cost could be substantial. At high-end auction houses in Paris, antique frames can cost more than $100,000. The gallery’s only previous publicly funded frame acquisition bought a $40,000 frame for a 16th-century Francesco Salviati painting called Virgin and Child with an Angel.
The gallery has raised $20,000 for the current campaign so far, through donations from 275 people. The painting’s resonance with Canadians is attracting donors, said Gritt.
“People feel like they’re helping something that they care about, something really direct, rather than a general fundraising campaign, which lots of museums run.”
The approximately five foot tall oil-on-canvas painting was given to Canada by the second Duke of Westminster in 1918 to recognize the country’s role in the First World War. When Canada received the painting, which West created in 1771, it was already separated from its original Englishstyle frame.
The current frame imitates the elaborate, highly carved pieces from the 18th century but is too dull to do the painting justice, said Gritt.
“The frame that we’re looking to raise the money for is kind of similar in width, but it’s all in the quality, in the form of it, the joy on the finish. It’ll make a big difference.”
The 18th century was the glory days of British frame design, Gritt said, so a proper antique frame would be decorative art in itself.
“The frame that it’s in now definitely takes away from the painting. It’s ugly, it’s poorly made. Certainly you can ignore it and you can look at the painting, but once you catch sight of it, once you focus on it, it degrades your experience of looking at the painting in a very subtle but nevertheless very important way.”
The gallery is fundraising for the painting until the fall.
The amount raised will determine whether the gallery buys a more expensive ready-to-hang frame from a dealer, or a cheaper frame from an auction, which could need in-house repairs, Gritt said.
Tens of thousands of dollars might seem expensive to those who think a frame is just a frame, but Gritt said the right frame not only looks better, it can give viewers authentic context about the painting’s era.
In the 18th century, frames reflected the design of the room in which the paintings were hung, from small details such as gilded furniture to structural elements such as wall mouldings.
“There is a very vibrant context for these things and we’re missing so much of it now, but we can potentially have it immediately adjacent to the painting, through the frame,” said Gritt.
With a period frame, viewers will get an idea of what it was like to experience the painting in the 18th century, he said.
“Beyond the frame, there’s the wall, there’s the floor and then there’s you. Then there’s your dental appointment tomorrow, and there’s the fact that there’s a little tear on your air intake in your Volvo. The closer you get to the painting, the more that stuff should fade away. In a sense, it can establish a design context for the painting and a little slice of the original installation situation, a little slice of English 18thcentury air around the painting. For me, that should be part of it and the right frame can do it.”