Complex Art Conservation and Preservation Problems: A Case Study on the Work of Egon Schiele

Paul-Bernhard Eipper

Sept 2023 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

About this eBook

In this book, for the first time, an examination of Egon Schiele’s general painting technique is carried out. The main case study for this comprehensive investigation is the painting “Stadtende/Häuserbogen III,” 1918, one of Egon Schiele’s last works, which is housed at Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria. In this book, the conservation campaign is detailed: uncovering portrait sketches integrated and painted over in the painting, unmasking the signature as a forgery, and recognising the frame as the original decorative frame. The research in the years following the conservation is detailed: discussing that, among other pigments, cadmium sulphide was confirmed in the paint material, which will influence subsequent conservation measures for the painting. The book’s examination continues with the complex interactions between environment and object that were also addressed in recently completed EU projects, concluding that continuously gained knowledge about external influences and storage materials used will help to adapt further measures to the painting as it continues to degrade.

About the author

Paul-Bernhard Eipper graduated as a conservator from the University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany. He was head of conservation at the August Deusser Museum, Bad Zurzach, Switzerland, and at the Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria. He was a publicly appointed expert at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Germany. He received his PhD from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Witten-Herdecke, Germany. He was President of IIC Austria (The International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works) and a member of the extended board of the Museumsbund Österreich, and is currently a member of the board of the Egon Schiele Society, Vienna. He is a Fellow by Election of the Learned Society of the IIC, London. He is a lecturer at the Institute of Art History, Karl Franzens University, Graz and as in appointed Professor of Restoration of Modern and Contemporary Painting at the University of Fine Arts and Design, Laboratory of Restoration of Modern and Contemporary Painting, Bratislava, Slovakia. He is the author of 300 publications and 14 books, and is editor of 11 books, including seven editions of the “Handbook of Surface Cleaning”.