The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware  19735

Telephone: 302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

Creator:         Feller, Robert L.                    

Title:               Research papers

Dates:             1951-2014

Call No.:         Col. 1005

Acc. No.:        2019x27

Quantity:        20 boxes, 16 volumes

Location:        505 G 2-4

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Robert L. Feller was a scientist who contributed to the field of art conservation.  He was in charge of the National Gallery of Art Research Project on artists’ materials, and director of the Center for Materials of the Artist and Conservator at the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The purpose of this research was to develop new ways to conserve works of art.  He carried out pioneering work on resins, solvents, and the development of synthetic picture varnishes, and he tested the deteriorating effects of light, which led to developing better museum lighting.  He lectured on the role of color and pigments in works of art.  He wrote numerous articles and several books on all these topics.  His research was used to help detect forgeries of paintings.

 

He was active in the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) and the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), as well as other societies relating to chemistry and conservation.  The AIC’s Lifetime Achievement Award is named in honor of Robert L. Feller, and he was a recipient of the award.

 

Born in 1919, Robert Livingston Feller was the son of Edna Buchelew and William H. Feller.  Robert took art classes as a boy, but majored in chemistry in college (Dartmouth, class of 1941) because it was easier to make a living as a chemist than as an artist.  After service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Rutgers University.  He, along with many other conservators, worked in Florence, Italy, after the devastating flood of 1966.  Feller died on August 2, 2018.  He was married to Ruth M. Johnston, a noted researcher in the field of color science.  She wrote papers and won awards for her work.  Mrs. Johnston-Feller died in 2000. 

 

The Fellers amassed a large collection of books about the science and technology of color and the history of paint.  This library was donated to the National Gallery of Art.  The Fellers were known for other philanthropic donations as well. 

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

Notes, graphs, correspondence, reports, and slides pertaining to the research interests of Robert L. Feller.   Many of the files pertain to chalk, white lead, and other paint pigments.  The text of his 1990 Forbes lecture, correspondence about the Shroud of Turin, correspondence about Vermeer paintings, and bibliographic references (in a card file) are also found.  In addition, the collection includes his bound copies of quarterly reports he made on his research between 1951 and 1976.  These are not merely summaries, but include full reports of research done, charts, and copies of correspondence.  Also found are slides pertaining to Feller’s work, white lead samples, and samples of pigments from various paintings. 

 

In the early 1960s, Feller did some research work for the artist Sue Fuller (1914-2006).  In appreciation, she gave him one of her “String Compositions.”  That work is in this collection. 

 

           

ORGANIZATION

 

Papers are in this order: general files, slides, bibliographic card file, “String Composition,” and the bound volumes of quarterly reports.

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are mostly in English.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Collection is open to the public.  Copyright restrictions may apply.

           

 

PROVENANCE

 

Gift of Barbara A. Kammer, niece of Robert L. Feller.

           

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

Topics:

            Art – Conservation and restoration – Research.

            Art, Abstract.

            Artists’ materials.

            Pigments.

           

 

Additional author:

            Fuller, Sue, 1914-

           

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 505 G 2-4

 

 

 

Box 1:

 

Folder 1:          Antimony oxide white

 

Folder 2:          Asbestos

 

Folder 3:          Asphaltum

 

Folder 4:          Berrie, Barbara: correspondence and paper, 2009

 

Folder 5:          Blanc fixe lithopone

 

Folder 6:          Blue and green copper pigments

 

Folder 7:          Blues

 

Folder 8:          Blues: Prussian blue

 

Folder 9:          CaSO4  [calcium sulfate]: gypsum

 

Folders 10-11: Chalk 

 

Folder 12:        Chalk: calcite

 

Folder 13:        Chalk: E. De Witte

 

Folder 14:        Chalk: literature on (also includes coccoliths)

                                    [continues in next box]          

 

 

Box 2:

 

Folder 1:          Chalk: literature on (also includes coccoliths)

                                    [continued from previous box]

 

Folder 2:          Chalk: Shaffer and Feller article

 

Folder 3:          Chalk: university contacts

 

Folder 4:          Clays, silica, silicates

 

Folder 5:          Coccolithaceae

 

Folder 6:          Coccoliths, July 1973  [chiefly photos]

 

Folder 7:          Correspondence, 1957-2014

 

Folder 8:          “Evaluation of Cellulose Ethers for Conservation”: notes for this book

 

Folder 9:          Fayum portrait of a lady (Toledo Museum of Art)

 

Folder 10:        Feller, Robert L.: articles and papers by him

 

Folder 11:        Feller: Robert L.: oral history interview, 1977, with 2010 annotations [transcript]

 

 

Box 3:

 

Folder 1:          Feller: Robert L.: resumes and lists of publications

 

Folder 2:          Forbes lecture, 1990 [no title]

 

Folder 3:          Graphs and charts

 

Folder 4:          Green earth

 

Folder 5:          Iron oxides

 

Folder 6:          Lead carbonate

 

Folder 7:          Lead stannate: Naples yellow

 

Folder 8:          Lead-tin yellow

 

Folder 9:          Murano mgns/pearlescent

 

Folder 10:        Nacromer ZNC-B

 

Folder 11:        National Gallery of Art (D.C.): cleaning discussion, 1978

 

Folder 12:        National Gallery of Art (D.C.): conservation library: early history

 

Folder 13:        Notebook: Oct. 28, 2010

 

Folder 14:        Notebook: Artists materials, Sept. 1988, with RLF notes, 2004

 

 

Box 4:

 

Folder 1:          Notebook: Artists materials, Mary Curran

 

Folder 2:          Notebook: Project 2G

 

Folder 3:          Notebook: Robert G. Florida, June 1969

 

Folder 4:          Peruvian pigments     

 

Folder 5:          Photographs [mostly, these are not identified]

 

Folder 6:          Shroud of Turin: correspondence with Walter McCrone

 

Folder 7:          Sienas, ochres

 

Folder 8:          Vermeer paintings: correspondence and notes, 1960s-1970s

 

Folder 9:          Vermilion

 

 

Box 5:

 

Folders 1-2:     White lead      

 

Folder 3:          White lead: nacreous

 

Folders 4-5:     White lead: x-ray deffraction

 

Folders 6-7:     Zinc oxide

 

 

Box 6: Slides

 

            General color science;

            Basic polymer aging;

            Polymer behavior

 

 

Box 7: Slides

 

            Polymer degradation;

            Basic varnishes and solvochromic dyes;

            Pichetto whitening panels;

            Depth of fade [continues in next box];

 

 

Box 8: Slides

 

            Depth of fade [continued from previous box];

            Some faded pictures;

            Fading;

            Blue wools;

            Grains of sand I and II;

 

 

Box 9: Slides

 

            Gerbier 1 and 2;

            Noel Kunz [charts mention ultramarine];

            Blue glass and refractive index panels;

            Charts about exposure to heat and light;

 

 

Box 10: Slides

 

            Pigments;

            Color and pigments;

            Pigments and colors; [continues in next box]

 

 

Box 11: Slides

 

            Pigments and colors; [continued from previous box];

            “statement” slides and stages of aging;

            Light and color;

            NYU talk [apparently about scientists and conservation];

            EVA resins;

            Miss Frick’s gallery at Pitt

 

 

Box 12: Slides

 

            Alizarin glazes;

            Alizarin: fading of the yellow A [to] Y & C;

            Alizarin study;

            Alizarin: blouse;

            Alizarin and Mattelle [continues in next box];

 

 

Box 13: Slides

 

            Alizarin and Mattelle [continued from previous box];

            Paper;

            Paper: yellowness I and II [continues in next box];

 

 

Box 14: Slides

 

            Paper: yellowness II [continued from previous box];

            Paper: yellowing;

            Reno slides [apparently a talk about fading];

            Iridescence;

            “Genevra box”: suitcase adapted to transporting paintings;

 

 

Box 15: Slides

 

            Brussels talk;

            Joyce Hill Stoner series [chiefly slides showing Robert L. Feller];

            Japanese prints: Oberlin;

 

 

Box 16: Slides

 

            Japanese prints;

            Sue Fuller: string composition installation, Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, 1967;

            Solvent series, and others;

            Odds and ends;

            Florence, Italy;

 

 

Box 17: notecards

 

            Three sets of bibliographical references; one set was labeled Key References, but the other two sets were not labeled;

 

 

Box 18: samples

 

            Samples of white lead pigment from paintings, 1967

 

 

Box 19: samples [in metal file box]

 

            Samples on slides

 

 

Box 20: award and art work

 

            Plaque (with clock): University Products/AIC Award for Distinguguished Achievement in Conservation of Cultural Property, 2000; CAUTION: CLOCK IS LOOSE

 

            “String Composition,” by artist Sue Fuller (1914-2006), given to Feller “in grateful appreciation of thread tests, 1961-1966”; in custom-made box

 

 

 

Sixteen bound volumes: National Gallery of Art: quarterly reports:

covering January/March 1951 through May/October 1976;

The quarterly reports are not merely summaries of the work being done, but include results of research, charts, and correspondence.  These are a very good record of the work that Feller and his co-workers were doing.