Salon Doré: The Past, The Present and The Future with Dare Hartwell

All those who circulate the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, located within the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design's Flagg Building, are struck by the Salon Doré. This 18th-century French period room was originally part of the hôtel de Clermont in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, an old aristocratic quarter of Paris. The room's paneling was purchased by William A. Clark and installed in his mansion on Fifth Avenue then, after his death, was moved again to the Corcoran.

I have been fortunate enough to experience the afternoon sun transform into heavenly light as it permeates the space and reflects off the magnificent gold. I sat down with Dare Hartwell, former Head Conservator of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the conservator who oversaw the recent restoration of the Salon Doré, and Olivia Kohler-Maga, Assistant Director of the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, on March 27, 2024 to discuss the Salon Doré's past, present, and future.

Maximus Vogt (MV): What restoration is specifically being done in the Salon Doré?

Dare Hartwell (DH): It was the restoration of the paneling. The room began its life in the forest, trees were cut down and then the wood went to the workshop of a cutter who followed the design of an architect. When the woodcutter was done, it probably went to the workshop of the gilder, which is totally separate.

The French pride themselves on burnished gilding - which is shiny - and contrasting that with matte gilding. In order to burnish the gilding, the substrate must become more pliable so they put layer and layer and layer of gesso on the wood. Traditional gesso is heated white pigment and rabbit-skin glue combined to form a liquid that is brushed onto the wood, then it dries and turns solid. They generally do about 10-12 layers, once you have these layers built up, you have lost the detail from the woodcutting underneath, so the most skilled person in the workshop recuts the gesso to get the detail back.

All the fine detail in the paneling of the Salon Doré has been recut into the gesso. Once gesso recutting is done, there is an added layer of clay which can be various colors of red, it can also be blue, black and yellow. They pick any color of clay they want to show through the gold. They also used different colors of gold: primary features are yellow gold and secondary features are silver gold. It's okay to have leaves that are silver gold, it's not okay to have flowers that are silver gold. Some of the gilding is burnished, some of it is left matte. These conventions are very strong and this is why we bought over an atelier of French gilders in the previous restoration in 1992 who knew these things that we did not. It's little known in the U.S. because we don't have this kind of thing, but in France there are plenty of workshops who continue the 18th-century gilding traditions.

Olivia Kohler-Maga (OKM): How are these French artisans trained?

DH: Pretty early on, you don't finish high school and you go into an apprentice program, maybe age 16. I think it's good. Maybe it's putting you on a track a little too young but it is considered an honorable thing to do, every gilder I had was under the age of 30, except for the recutter. There is a strong apprentice program that keeps churning people out. We have no tradition of this at all [in the United States], we can't make anything in an 18th-century manner, we don't have an artisan tradition, which is too bad because there are many people that would like to.

In one sense, the gold is very stable, the problem is the wood and the gesso which respond rapidly to relative changes in the relative humidity and temperature. As the wood expands and contracts under the gesso, the gesso just flakes off, the main problem in the Salon Doré is controlling the relative temperature and humidity. For the future: because we don't know how well the climate control will work and because it is difficult to control the air vents we will have to watch for the lifting of the gesso. It will be our recommendation to come back in eighteen months and conduct another condition survey.

Maintaining the space is so much better than trying to do everything at once. Hopefully, if we can get on top of the climate control and get everything in good condition then it can stay that way. The tables are an issue too because they are in the corners right next to the air vents. The tables were made for this room, because of the French Revolution they were separated but we were able to buy them about 2006. When we bought them, we initially covered up the vents and it was fine but at some point after GW acquired it, the vents were opened so they became seriously damaged.

MV: Did the tables undergo the same process as the paneling when they were created?

DH: They are the same thing, you'll notice below the chair rail in the room, there is less decoration because they made the furniture to go up against the wall and continue the decoration from above. This furniture was never re-arranged and you also didn't sit on the chairs because they were part of the decor. When they received guests, they brought in other chairs for them to sit on. The tables themselves are made of three colors of gold: the yellow gold, silver gold, then a pinkish gold at the bottom. In this restoration we had to reattach the garland motifs that had previously come apart from the tables.

MV: How did you track down the tables that were separated?

DH: Around [19]92 when we were getting ready to open the room, we got a huge long fax from Sotheby's or Christie's - I can't remember - saying they had these tables. We were less sure at the time but we were later convinced. We actually missed buying them at the time. We didn't get them until 2006, the person who bought them from Christie's or Sotheby's was an art historian and an expert in 18th-century boiserie, and bought them with the idea of restoring them and making a fortune off the Corcoran. We did not buy them from him because he sold them to somebody else. But I'm very very happy to have them now.

OKM: Do you know where the other pieces of furniture are?

DH: There was an inventory made after the room was initially completed, there were the four corner tables and two console tables made just like them that went up against the wall. There were also chairs and two sofas. One of the console tables disappeared and we don't know where the other furniture went.

MV: What is the composition of the gold leaf and are present-day conservators using the same adhesive as they would in the 18th-century?

DH: In 1992, I was convinced I would always use rabbit-skin glue to stay within the traditional method. I was convinced by other people after that that there is a synthetic that is easier to use, wicks in more and consolidates it better. Some of the restoration is done in gold leaf, repairing where it flaked off. If the damage was tiny, then the conservators retouch with paint and around the vents, they retouch with paint because expensive gold leaf is not worth the potential of it flaking off.

MV: Was the process of restoration in 1992 the same process that is being done now?

DH: No, because it was a mess then. It was a mess because they had done several other restorations, after the gold leaf flaked off they previously used gold paint which actually did not consist of gold but bronze which turns brown, black and green as it ages. So there would be big spots of black and some of the flowers had turned silvery, so there was a lot to be corrected.

MV: Did the painted frescoes on the ceiling ever have to be restored?

DH: I did the ceiling. It is not a fresco, it's on canvas, and it's three pieces of fabric and we worked on it for quite a while - about seven months or so. It's not the original ceiling of the Salon Doré but it is the same artist. When the Salon Doré came to New York, Senator William A. Clark, the American millionaire on Fifth Avenue wanted a big room so he added some pilasters and a door to make a room that suited him more. Americans did not have a sense of authenticity at all in that period and it's particularly noticeable in pastiches of the period. Now Senator Clark's expansion of the room is a part of its story and this space was built for it; you can't put it back to the way it originally was.

MV: Are the mirrors original to the room?

DH: The mirror glass is not because you could not get a piece of glass that big at the time. The original pieces where the new glass is now were probably thrown out as Senator Clark thought it was much nicer to have a big piece of glass there.

OKM: Obviously the room itself is a piece of art, but would there have been other pieces of art shown in the room, sculpture or anything?

DH: Little sculptures and bronzes on tables but nothing big, it was the receiving room of Count d'Orsay's wife.

OKM: I remember there being a very interesting Yinka Shonibare piece shown in the center of the room and I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition.

DH: I've seen contemporary and I've liked it, we had Jackie [Kennedy Onassis]'s ball gowns here. But I have absolutely liked contemporary things in here too because in its day this room was avant-garde. It's one of the earliest examples in Paris of the neoclassical style, so on the cusp of 18th-century Rococo, the room has clearly gone towards neoclassical. Count d'Orsay would have been building an avant-garde room for the time.

MV: Are these the original curtains and drapes?

DH: No, silk does not last that long. These curtains were designed by the same architect of the Salon Doré. We knew from the inventory that they were crimson damask drapes, I always thought of damask as one solid color. After we got the money to get the curtains - I went to Paris and visited a silk manufacturer that dated back to the 18th-century that still had their original patterns. At that point they told me in the 18th-century damask was not a solid color it was two or three colors, so my first thought was to be totally horrified, but now I realize it was completely right, that one solid color would have been way too heavy, that breaking up the colors is completely correct. They wove the pattern for us and dyed the threads and gave them to the people who do the trim so it matches completely. The person who made the curtains brought them to the U.S. Each curtain had a crate that was the length of the curtain so that they would not get wrinkled up, we are probably never gonna take them down. A textile conservator came in a few weeks ago to vacuum them and said not to take them down as well.

MV: What year did the room come to the Corcoran?:

DH: Clark bought it in the late 19th/early 20th-century, then he died in [19]25 and it came after that. The room is configured exactly as it was in his house.

OKM: So Senator Clark brought the room over and changed it to suit him but why was it possible to be sold at all?

DH: There's so much here we don't know, we used to joke about 'can we do a seance?' My final thought was that the room had been taken out before Senator Clark bought it and transported it to New York and that he did not see the Salon in the original house. Here's the really interesting thing: they sold the wood paneling and replaced it with a plaster copy which is not even remotely attractive, it looks like a knockoff. They also did not gild in the same way. When I first saw the reproduction Salon Doré room in Paris I wasn't sure if I would be able to tell but it was obvious. I'm also told the plaster copy would have been extremely expensive so it wasn't like they were making money.

OKM: Where do you think Senator Clark got the idea for additional plaster trophy panels depicting sports and theater?

DH: He had grown children and I think they were interested in sports and theater.

OKM: That is more touching than what I imagined initially. Instead of being this person who just ripped art out of France and rebuilt it in its own marrer, he has this tribute to his children.

DH: After the "War of the Copper Kings" in Montana he walks away with a bad reputation. I always thought he did not pay enough attention to his PR and that he let people say things about him and that he did have a really decent side to him too. He was proud of the fact that he started out as a miner and when he went back to Montana he hung out with his old mining buddies, he didn't forget about where he came from.

OKM: This room has hosted many events, What was your favorite of these events?

DH: I mean the [annual Corcoran] Balls were always very beautiful, however we feel about having balls here, it always looked gorgeous.

OKM: Of all the mysteries that still remain from this room, if you could wave a magic wand and find one, what would it be?

DH: The sale, assuming it was a sale, of the paneling. We know that during the French Revolution, the house got really messed up. They used the residence for offices and gymnasium so I'm sure it was pretty wrecked. There was another restoration in the 1830's when it went back into private hands so why they decided to do what they did I don't know. I would also like to know if Senator Clark knew where it came from as the information his daughter gave was incorrect. There's one weekend in September in Paris where private residences that are now owned by the government are open to the public so you can go and visit the room. In the reproduction Salon Doré in Paris they give you a handout that tells you about the room, except the fact that it is not the original room.

OKM: What would you hope students take away from this room?

DH: The technique and the beauty of the room, the art history inherent in the room and that it actually is a work of art. The trophy panels too, they go back to ancient times, after battles the Romans would gather up the enemies weapons and they would hang them on trees as a victory sign, this evolves into a decorative pattern. In the trophy panels round the room there are arts and sciences, music, military victories and love. From Senator Clark you have two more, they are the most robust and less refined. But the four originals are as much of a work of art as anything. When I would talk to students and little kids I would explain to them that this is craftsmanship and somebody made something beautiful.

This interview has been edited for length and consistency. Thank you to Dare Hartwell!

By: Maximus Vogt, Art History and Fine Arts, '26

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