A painting not seen by the public for 56 years went on display at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki this weekend with the opening of Frances Hodgkins: Forgotten Still Life on Saturday 22 August. Frances Hodgkins, Still Life: Anemones and Hyacinths c1925, was kept in storage for almost 60 years at Auckland Art Gallery. Although most of the painting was in good repair when it entered the Gallerys collection in 1956, the upper layer of brown paint around the flowers was flaking severely and no suitable treatment was available. Over the past six months, however, conservator Genevieve Silvester, the Gallerys 2015 Marylyn Mayo intern, developed a remedy and restored the work to a condition where it can now be shown in public. The most critical part of the treatment was to stabilise the flaking paint to prevent any further loss, said Silvester. Silvester first researched the type
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