An Evaluation of Historical Bleaching with Chlorine Dioxide Gas, Sodium Hypochlorite, and Chloramine-T at the Fogg Art Museum

AbstractIn the mid-twentieth century, drawings by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres at the Fogg Art Museum were treated with chemical bleaches such as chlorine dioxide gas, sodium hypochlorite, and chloramine-T. Fifty years later, the darkened condition of the drawings was attributed to bleaching with chlorine dioxide gas. This paper discusses the three methods developed by Rutherford John Gettens to generate chlorine dioxide gas from sodium chlorite, formaldehyde and formic acid, examines the use of these bleaching methods to treat Ingres drawings at the Fogg, and discusses the sodium hypochlorite and chloramine-T bleaching methods also in use at the time. The treatments of two Ingres drawings are compared and evaluated in light of later bleaching studies and the current condition of each drawing. All of these historical bleaching methods, as practiced on the works studied, contributed to the darkening and colour/brightness reversion of drawings.