Conservation | Mounting and framing Jazz

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The National Galleries of Scotland conservation team is preparing 20 iconic plates from Henri Matisse’s artist book Jazz for display at the forthcoming exhibition, A Taste for Impressionism, at the Royal Scottish Academy. 

In this video, originally presented to a professional body of conservation professionals in May 2022, Senior Conservation Technician (Paper) Sarah Laing talks through the technical and ethical challenges the team faced in mounting and framing the plates.

Scroll down to view photographs documenting the process.

Mounting and framing Jazz

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The team working on La Nageuse dans l'aquarium [The Swimmer in the Aquarium], left and Les Codomas [The Codomas], right, from Henri Matisse's 1947 artist book Jazz
The team made multiple versions of the eyelet hinge, trying different shapes, sizes and orientations to test structure and strength
Four of the plates have text pages printed on the verso
Working on Les Codomas [The Codomas], the 11th plate from Henri Matisse's 1947 artist book Jazz
The team holding L'enterrement de Pierrot [The Burial of Pierrot], the 10th plate from Henri Matisse's 1947 artist book Jazz
This image of the 18th plate, Lagoon, illustrates how it has retained its natural folded structure once mounted
Conservation Technician, Sarah Laing, framing the plate La Nageuse dans l'aquarium [The Swimmer in the Aquarium], ready for the forthcoming exhibition A Taste of Impressionism at the Royal Scottish Academy

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