The Harem Taking a Walk Close up of X-Ray detail

Painting without the frame. When this conservation project began, the painting reflected little intervention by restorers except for the fact that the canvas had been relined (backed with another canvas for support). The action of time and climate—the Crocker was not air-conditioned until 1978—affected both the surface and the structure of the painting and its frame. The painting had dusty, yellowed varnish and many losses in the frame's gilding and ornament. Remarkably, though the surface had cracked significantly as is usual for canvases of this age, very few losses of paint had occurred.

The original priming of the canvas, contained very dense lead white pigment, emphasizing the weave of the cloth. The images make clear the great difference in thickness between the paint in the figures—thick enough to cause stress cracks—and the thinly painted background.