Today Barbara and I went to the Philadelphia Art Museum (http://www.philamuseum.org/) and to the Perelman Building for a members tour of the display of the newly restored Thomas Eakins masterpiece The Gross Clinic (http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/299524.html). This picture at the time of it’s painting was not received very well do to the subject matter. Most people during that time did not know what went on in a surgical theater, and certainly did not want to have it hanging on the wall. Over the years due to bad restoration technics it was in bad need of repair. One of the things they had to do was remove the canvas from a piece of plywood that it had been glued to. They had to turn it canvas side down and remove the plywood one layer at a time back down to the canvas. The story of the restoration was most interesting. After that we went back to the main building for lunch. After lunch we went up to the second floor looking for the Arts of Bengal exhibit and then to the Art in Revolutionary Philadelphia exhibit. After a snack in the Gallery coffee shop we headed home. Here are some pictures of some of the things we saw.
