Inside The Massive, Two-Year Effort To Save, And Restore, Gainsborough’s ‘Blue Boy’

The Huntington’s senior paintings conservator, Christina O’Connell, has a plan. “The Blue Boy will be reframed and returned to the portrait gallery on November 1. It will remain there for 10 months while O’Connell processes reams of data and formulates her treatment plan. Then the painting will come down for another several months of treatment. Part of this work will be done in the lab, but as much as possible will be completed in a cordoned-off area of the portrait gallery, in full view of the visiting public.”