Treatment Goals and Rationale:

This etching and aquatint by John Taylor Arms belongs to a staff member at the National Gallery of Art. With plans to display the print in their home, we decided that the goal of treatment should be to remove the poor-quality window mat and backing board, and reduce discoloration over the image area to restore appropriate tonality to the sheet. This discoloration is a product of photooxidation, which severely detracts from the sensitive, luminous quality of the image. This treatment was supervised by Amy Hughes, paper conservator at the National Gallery of Art.