Known today primarily for his role in the development of the electromagnetic telegraph and Morse code, Samuel F. B. Morse began his career as a painter. His monumental Gallery of the Louvre, in the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, was the culmination of a three-year period of study in Europe. For his canvas, Morse selected masterpieces from the Musée du Louvre's collection and “reinstalled” them in one of the museum's grandest spaces, the Salon Carré, envisioning that space as a workshop in which individuals study, sketch, and copy from his imagined assemblage. Morse exhibited the painting only twice, in New York and New Haven, where it was highly praised by critics and connoisseurs but rejected by the public. Crushed by the response, Morse soon ceased painting altogether, moving on to his more successful experiments in communications technology. Close to two hundred years later, Gallery of the Louvre underwent a six-month conservation treatment in the studio of American painting specialists Lance Mayer and Gay Myers. The treatment was intended to study Morse's technical processes, and to repair damages that had occurred over time. This video documents the conservation, which yielded numerous insights into the story of the painting's creation, including how Morse employed experimental techniques and materials in the construction of his composition and how his methods and the rigors of transatlantic travel caused damages that necessitated extensive repairs probably undertaken by the artist himself before the painting's first public exhibition. Featuring interviews with conservators, curators, and other specialists, this 30-minute video shares exciting new information about one of the most lauded American paintings of the early nineteenth century.
Produced by Sandpail Productions for the Terra Foundation for American Art
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Winner of a 2012 Communicator Award from the International Academy of the Visual Arts

Catalog Number: MC-1274	Type: Short	Genre: Documentary
Copyright: 2011	Length: 30 minutes	Format:  DVD  Region: 0 (All)
TV System: NTSC	ISBN:	UPC/EAN: 753885972398
Label: Terra Foundation for American Art		Rating: Not Rated

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