Magazine: Spring 2010

[In 2010] the Museum’s conservator, Norman Muller, undertook extensive technical analysis of the paintings, [Arion on the Dolphin and Vertumnus and Pomona] which led to the discovery that both works had been partially repainted. The Arion originally closely resembled a drawing by Boucher that is now in the Morgan Library and Museum. A comparison between the X-ray and the Morgan drawing... makes this clear. The major changes in Arion on the Dolphin (and lesser changes in Vertumnus and Pomona) are evidence of the complex history of these paintings. The repainting must have taken place before 1766, when the prints, which show the new compositions, were made. The rea- sons for the compositional changes are unknown, but the repainting was surely done by Boucher himself, as Bergeret was an important client. The modifications demonstrate that the paintings on view were indeed the royal pictures and not later copies, which would not have traces of earlier compositions concealed below the paintings we know.