Plaster of Winston Churchill by Patrick Synge Hutchinson, 20th century
This plaster sculpture of Winston Churchil was most likely a maquette or model destined for the bronze foundry. At the foundry, bronze casters would have used this model to make bronze copies for the artist. This particular object was broken into nearly 50 fragments. The client requested that it be reconstructed, but also wanted to have a bronze cast from the reconstructed sculpture. The sculpture's fragmentary condition and the fact that it was painted (possibly the artist himself) with a thin layer of gouache or watercolor and covered with an oil-based coating, made the treatment quite complex. The conservation treatment required reconstructing the object, finding an appropriate coating that would preserve the paint layer and allow the object to be molded at the bronze foundry, and improving the object's visual appearance so that it looked whole again.
Images courtesy of Barrie Williams and New Arts Foundry. Photographs by S. Balachandran.
The sculpture was broken into approximately 45 fragments. Some of the fragments were less than half an inch in length.
Left image: After re-assembly of the sculpture with a conservation-grade acrylic resin.
Central image: Filling the areas of loss with an acrylic fill material, front view.
Right image: Filling the areas of loss with an acrylic fill material, back view.
Left image: After applying a protective acrylic resin coating to the plaster, it was ready to be molded in silicone rubber. Here, the plaster is being set into one half of a plaster “mother mold”. This work was completed at New Arts Foundry, a Baltimore foundry.
Central image: After both sides of the “mother mold” are clamped together, a blue silicone rubber was poured over the Churchill plaster inside it. The silicone rubber was tested by the conservator before it was used on the sculpture.
Right image: Opening the “mother mold” after the silicone rubber has set.
Left image: The silicone rubber mold has to be very carefully cut along the seams without damaging the original plaster.
Central image: Cutting away the silicone rubber mold to reveal the sculpture.
Right image: The original plaster after removal from the silicone rubber mold.
The front and back views of the sculpture after completion of the conservation treatment.
Left image: The wax model poured from the silicone mold at the foundry. The wax model was used in the lost-wax technique to make the bronze.
Right image: The patinated bronze made by New Arts Foundry.