Jean-Joseph Chamant: The Lost Sketchbook

This post was created by Morgan Adams, Pine Tree Foundation Post Graduate Fellow in Book Conservation, and Maria Fredericks, Drue Heinz Book Conservator.

Jean-Joseph Chamant: The Lost Sketchbook

Take a peek inside a rare and fascinating 18th-century artist's sketchbook of theater designs, recently discovered at NYU's Villa La Pietra, in Florence, Italy. This video highlights the little-known history of an itinerant French artist, Joseph Chamant, as revealed through a collaborative material examination and conservation treatment of his sketchbook. Conservation was performed by Institute of Fine Arts alumna Morgan Adams under the supervision of Maria Fredericks, Drue Heinz Book Conservator, Thaw Conservation Center at the Morgan Library & Museum. Complementary art historical research was contributed by Andrea Bell, a Fellow in the Drawing Institute at the Morgan Library & Museum.

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Thaw Conservation Center

The Thaw Conservation Center at The Morgan Library & Museum, a world-class laboratory for the conservation of works on paper and parchment—drawings, prints, photographs, illuminated manuscripts, rare books, fine bindings, and literary, historical, and music manuscripts—as well as a place for conservation studies, opened in February 2002.
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