• Originally published July 29, 2010 at 4:33 p.m., updated July 29, 2010 at 5:34 p.m.

SITKA, Alaska (AP) - A painting from the early days of Sitka under the U.S. flag has been restored to its former glory after years in a back room of the Sitka Historical Society Museum.

And soon the oil painting of the USS Jamestown, depicted at anchor in Sitka Channel, will join the regular collection on display at the museum.

Bob Medinger, Sitka Historical Society director, said he is pleased to give the freshly restored painting the home it deserves, after years of neglect in the nether regions of the museum.

"The USS Jamestown is historically probably one of the most famous ships," he said. "It was here the day of the transfer, and fought in the Civil War."

Besides the historical significance, Medinger also believes the painting has artistic merits of its own.

"It's a beautiful painting while the ship is anchored in the channel, from Japonski Island - the detail of the mountains and the clouds ..." he said. "It's a very realistic painting. It may be one of the first oil paintings done in Sitka, certainly the first from the American era."

The painting was rediscovered about a year and a half ago, when volunteer Patti Moss was reorganizing the collection in the education room of the museum. It was wedged between two other works in a corner, but it caught Moss's eye.

"It was heavily damaged by age and neglect," Medinger said.

The museum's curator, Ashley Kircher, secured a pro bono visit from a painting conservator who was attending a conference of the Western Art Association of Conservators in Juneau.

Dawne Steele Pullman, who travels around the world for her restoration work, completed an assessment of the Jamestown painting and a few others. She took note of the discoloration from the aged varnish, as well as of the raised areas and dark cracks in the work.

She relayed her opinion to the historical society, and gave an estimate of what it would cost for her to do a "conservation treatment."

With 20 years of painting conservator work on her resume, Steele Pullman said she has no opinion on the intrinsic value of the painting. That's not what keeps her in her line of work, she said.

"It's preservation of someone's cultural heritage," she said, "and people really appreciate that. That's why it was exciting. They're so pleased you recovered that cultural heritage."

This is the case with the Jamestown painting, she said.

"It's truly a gem," she said. "It's a time in history for Sitka that was important."

Steele Pullman saw where she could remedy some of the cracks and discoloration that distracted the viewer's eye, and shared that observation with Kircher.

Medinger said, "We decided we would employ her services to preserve the painting."

The $7,000 needed came from funds dedicated to the SHS collection conservation, held in bank CDs. Medinger said the board had agreed to spend up to $10,000 on the project. Given Steele Pullman's work on masterpieces for museums and personal collections throughout the world, Medinger said he considers it a bargain.

Steele Pullman finished her two weeks of work earlier this month, which included removing the aged and oxidized varnish, and repairing damage from the last restoration job, which apparently was done some time within the past 30 to 50 years.

Another problem was that the first restorer had been a bit too eager in his or her cleaning. The result was that original paint had been removed in the process, Steele Pullman said. The restorer, who may have been a local artist, also overglazed the painting.

"That's a pity, but not uncommon," Steele Pullman said.

During the course of her work, she learned more about the Jamestown and Sitka's history in the 1870s and '80s. She took a trip out to Japonski Island to try to pinpoint the artist's location, and was impressed with how similar the town and landscape are today.

The painting shows the Indian Village, with one white house among the little brown houses lining Katlian Street. An Indian canoe with two people paddling, and a steam powered launch, can be seen in the foreground, and snow-capped mountains are in back. Some of the buildings on the town side are still here today.

"It's like you're walking back in time, but you're still in the present," Steele Pullman said.

Medinger said he's pleased with the final result, a bright painting that is as clear, detailed and descriptive as a photograph. It was the largest amount the society and museum has spent on protecting what they believe is one of their top historic and artistic items.

Medinger said he hopes the painting leads to more interest and a better understanding of the time, which was not Sitka's brightest or happiest.

A plaque at the Petro Fuel dock marks the moorage site for the ship which was commissioned in San Francisco in 1844, and came to Sitka in 1879. The ship was commanded by Capt. L.A. Beardslee.

At the time, 12 years after the transfer from Russia, there was no civil government in Alaska. The U.S. Army troops stationed in Sitka to maintain order after the transfer were withdrawn in 1877, and the only public office was a U.S. customs agent.

"It was a rough time of Sitka's history," Medinger said.

The arrival of the Jamestown seems to have been the start of a new era, he said. Beardslee hired Tlingit workers on the ship and docks, worked with Presbyterian missions to start schools, and helped settle disputes with miners who were at Silver Bay.

Naval rule of Sitka continued until 1884 when Congress granted a form of civil government to Alaska, with Sitka as the district capital.

Although the historical society no longer has the original file on the painting, Medinger knows it was donated to the museum in 1984 by Margaret Cushing, a member of the Peterson family whose roots in Sitka go back well into the 19th century.

Sitka historian Bob DeArmond researched the painting's origins in 1985, and had some speculations on the identify of the artist, who signed the painting "R P S."

DeArmond found the Jamestown's Nov. 13, 1879, log listed among the occupations represented in the crew "1 painter, 1st class." This would apparently refer to a crew member named Richard Smith, listed as "ship's painter" on the ship's log when it left San Francisco the previous May.

Steele Pullman said it appears that the artist had some academic training, but was not an artist in the classical sense. She pointed out that the impressionists were making their mark in Europe at the time.

"He had an ability to paint," she said. "But he was more likely someone there to document and observe." Steele Pullman marveled at his level of detail, and the precision of his work. "His way of applying paint to canvas was exact. Academic. It's not exploratory or artistic."

___

Information from: Daily Sitka Sentinel, http://www.sitkasentinel.com/

• Print
• •
• Share
  • Share this item

    Send this to a friend

    Share on FaceBook

  • Grab the link

    Copy and paste the link:

  • Blog about it

    Blog about this page.

  • Close
• •
• Post a Comment
• •
• Favorite
• •
• Report error
  • Thank you for your submission.
    Error report or correction

    Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  

    
  • Close
• •