Staff Profile: Rosemary Fallon, Paper Conservator

Q: Where are you from and where did you attend college?

A: I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and exposed to art at a young age at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Gallery. I graduated from the University of Maryland with a BA in art history and minor in studio art, and an MS from Columbia University.

Q: How did you prepare for a career in conservation?

A: When I was at the Smithsonian in the late 1970s working as an assistant book buyer for the museum shops, I heard a paper conservator speak at an informal lunchtime talk about her job at the Conservation Analytical Lab (now known as the Museum Conservation Institute). Although I knew about conservation, it was then that I decided to investigate the graduate programs and their prerequisites.

I started taking chemistry classes at night and was fortunate to get a job in the conservation lab at the NPG as the mat-cutter. That position gave me the opportunity to work closely with the paper conservator then on staff.

After a year or so, I was accepted to Columbia University’s conservation program, where I received a MS in conservation, specializing in paper and book conservation. I was lucky enough to get hired back at NPG after graduate school!

Q: Do you have a favorite object in the NPG collection?

A: As you can imagine it is difficult to name a favorite object in the collection because I have so many favorites, but I am repeatedly drawn to the “noir” works of Marius de Zayas. The densely drawn, charcoal caricature drawings in our collection are intriguing to me not only for of their imagery but also for their dense, black drawing media. De Zayas’s drawing of Paul Haviland (below) is one of my favorites. The dramatic figure, with his back to the viewer, looks like a magician ready to conjure up an image out of the dark shadows from his camera in hand.

As a conservator, one of my duties is to identify the media used in artworks. Upon first observation the Haviland appears to be either charcoal or black pastel but a closer look under magnification reveals tiny particles with a sparkle that appear to be more gray-black, indicating charcoal. It also reveals an underdrawing of graphite pencil with its telltale sheen in an angled light.

Sometimes artists can use more than one black medium in their drawings, and it can be challenging distinguishing one from another especially in dark, dense drawings where the artist used multiple media. Comparing the media to known samples can be helpful for identification purposes.

Q: Do you have a favorite moment or story you would like to share?

A: My favorite moments at NPG—or representing NPG—are the occasions that have involved collaborations with others at the Smithsonian or with outside scholars, such as research associated with the Duchamp symposium during Anne Goodyear’s “Marcel Duchamp” exhibition; the challenges of grappling with the long-term preservation of the NPG’s new media (digital art) in the NPG’s Digital Arts Group; participating in the African American Museum of History and Culture’s “Save Our African American Treasures Programs” at cities in the U.S. as a conservation program reviewer for works on paper; co-teaching the workshop on the recovery and conservation of works on paper after the earthquake at the Cultural Recovery Center in Haiti . . . you get the idea!