The Bytown Museum is aiming to raise the funds needed to restore a 75-year-old portrait of two young girls, Annie and Amelia McLeod.
It’s been almost 76 years since a 19th-century portrait of two young girls, Annie and Amelia McLeod, was donated to the Bytown Museum. Now, a fundraising campaign has been launched to restore the artwork and put it on display.
The portrait was added to the museum’s collection in 1936 and requires extensive work due to deterioration of the painted surface.
The Annie and Amelia McLeod campaign aims to raise some of the estimated $5,000 needed to complete conservation efforts.
“There has been interest and people have responded,” says the museum’s director of development, Francesco Corsaro. “There has been movement towards our goal.”
The goal is for half of the $5,000 in funding to come from donations, he says.
Officials are also hoping that the conservation project may uncover more details about the lives of the sisters, he says.
According to the campaign’s website, research efforts will focus on two questions: Who was the McLeod family?
And what was their connection to Ottawa?
Art appraiser Andrew Gibbs says the restoration itself “could uncover unforeseen snippets of information” about the girls and their family as the painting is returned to its former state.
“But restoration per se is not likely the way they’ll find more, though with the publicity the (museum) may find an outside source to dig something up.”
Corsaro says he doesn’t assume the conservation process will unveil a great deal of information, but rather, he hopes to engage a historian to take part in researching the story behind the painting.
“We won’t go into research until we have the funds,” he says. “But once you start taking apart a work, looking at the details, some stuff might come up.”
At the moment, research has connected the portrait to John McLeod, a notable Hudson’s Bay Company official who was responsible for establishing numerous fur trading outposts across western Canada.
According to the museum newsletter, the painting dates back to the late 1840s, and was donated nearly a century later by John McLeod’s granddaughter.
The years have taken a toll on the portrait.
The conservation process will involve the mending of two tears, among other repairs.
The process could be a lengthy one, says Gibbs.
“It depends on the procedures, but with surface cleaning, painting in the cracks and relining the canvas, it could be a slow process, if done properly,” he says.
In the meantime, Corsaro says he hopes to approach a charitable foundation next, one with a mission to preserve Canadian heritage.