Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Project Blue Boy: History
Between Sept. 2018 and March, 2020, one of the most iconic artworks in British and American history, The Blue Boy, made around 1770 by English painter Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), underwent its first major technical examination and conservation treatment in public view.
Select a topic to explore the history of The Blue Boy
“Project Blue Boy” |The Artist | Who’s That Boy? | The Icon
“Project Blue Boy”
Closeup view of Christina Milton O'Connell, Mary Ann and John Sturgeon Senior Paintings Conservator, removing discolored varnish with small swabs. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
For the first 4–5 months during the year-long exhibition, The Blue Boy was in the gallery as Christina O’Connell, The Huntington’s senior paintings conservator, worked on the painting performing examination and analysis, and then paint stabilization, surface cleaning, and removal of non-original varnish and overpaint. The painting then went off-view for four months while she performed structural work on the canvas and applied varnish with equipment that can’t be moved to the gallery space. Once structural work was completed, The Blue Boy returned to the gallery where visitors were able to witness the inpainting process until the close of the exhibition in March 2020.
The Artist
