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by Joan Irving and Lisa Minardi
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Fig. 1: Durs Rudy Sr. (1766–1843) or Durs Rudy Jr. (1789–1850), 1832. Booklet one depicts Adam in the Garden of Eden. By lifting the top flap, Adam is transformed into Eve picking the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. By lowering the bottom flap, Eve in turn is transformed into a mermaid. |
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In 2008, Winterthur Museum acquired a spectacular four-part fraktur metamorphosis series, prompting the collaboration of curators, conservators, and scientists to more fully understand the object.1 Made by schoolmaster Durs Rudy Sr. (1766–1843) or his son Durs Rudy Jr. (1789–1850), the drawings have survived in remarkable condition and are dated 1832 and signed by the artist “Durs Rudy”—the kind of Rosetta stone object scholars and collectors dream of finding. A rare form in Pennsylvania German fraktur, the metamorphosis booklets can each portray three different scenes. Each booklet is made of a long strip of paper folded vertically so that the two shorter ends meet in the middle to create two flaps. By raising the top flap or lowering the bottom one, a new scene is created (Fig. 1). Booklet one depicts Adam’s temptation by Eve, booklet two the Crucifixion, booklet three the inevitability of death, and booklet four the joys of heaven. Made in both hand-drawn and printed versions, metamorphosis booklets were used to instruct children in religious and moral values. Three hand-drawn fraktur examples are known to be the work of either Rudy Sr. or Jr., but this is the only one that is signed (Fig. 2).2 The Rudy family emigrated from Germany in 1803, and by 1809 had settled in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, where it is believed this fraktur was made.3 |
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Although each fraktur is unique, there are common materials, tools, and techniques of manufacture. The paper is perhaps the most important material choice made by the fraktur artist. This metamorphosis is on wove paper, first manufactured around 1750 but not common on fraktur dated before 1820 in Winterthur’s collection. Wove paper has a more uniform surface than the earlier laid papers, making it well suited for use by fraktur artists whose applications of watercolor and ink ranged from thick, opaque coatings to delicate transparent washes and rich pools of color. Elemental analysis using X-ray spectroscopy (XRF) indicates that the pigments used to create the metamorphosis were Prussian blue, red ochre, lead white, red lead, and chrome yellow—all commercially available pigments rather than homemade vegetable inks and dyes often assumed to have been used in the making of fraktur.4 The use of chrome yellow, which was not commercially available until about 1818, indicates that the artist had access to newer colors, which expanded upon the traditional pigment palette. Chrome yellow also has good light stability, which helps explain the vibrancy of the metamorphosis designs (Fig. 5). The type of ink used to form the accompanying text—known as iron gall ink and made from a mixture of ground oak galls, tannins, and iron sulfate—can, depending on the recipe, become acidic and corrosive, causing losses in the paper. This type of ink, which is blackish purple when first applied but turns to brownish black, is also prone to fading and haloing. Once again, this metamorphosis proves to be in uncommonly good condition. The ink is without halos and has not yet penetrated the paper support. As with the colored pigments and paper, the folded format protected the ink from fading and from mechanical injuries such as abrasion. |
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Fig. 3: Detail, booklets two and three. The irregularly torn edges between the booklets fit together in a puzzle-like fashion indicating that the now separate booklets were once a single folded sheet. Grime along the joins on the verso (not shown), suggests that the single-sheet format was in use long enough to acquire embedded grime and other surface soiling. |
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Connoisseurship and scientific analysis have added substantially to our understanding of the techniques and materials used in the creation of this vibrant metamorphosis by Durs Rudy and enabled us to understand why it has remained in such a remarkable state of preservation. We now also know that the four booklets were originally joined as one unit, although they will remain separate, since the results of wear and use are now a part of the story. Once used for the instruction of children, the metamorphosis can now teach us about the remarkable world of fraktur art and the changing nature of its study. |
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Joan Irving is the paper conservator of Winterthur Museum and adjunct assistant professor of the Winterthur and University of Delaware Art Conservation Program (WUDPAC). Joan specializes in the treatment of early American works on paper and historic documents. Lisa Minardi is the assistant curator of furniture at Winterthur Museum, with a specialty in Pennsylvania German arts. She is co-curator of the forthcoming Winterthur exhibition and publication Paint, Pattern & People: Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1725–1850.
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1. Formerly owned by the Lehigh County Historical Society, the metamorphosis fraktur was acquired by Winterthur at Pook & Pook, Inc’s. Period Furniture & Accessories auction, September 26, 2008, lot 199. All twelve scenes are illustrated in Beatrice B. Garvan and Charles F. Hummel, The Pennsylvania Germans: A Celebration of their Arts, 1683–1850 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1982), pl. 120. 2. A second metamorphosis attributed to Rudy is in the collection of the American Folk Art Museum; see Stacy C. Hollander, American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 246–249; a third metamorphosis is privately owned. 3. See Russell D. and Corinne P. Earnest, Papers for Birth Dayes: Guide to the Fraktur Artists and Scriveners, 2 vols. (East Berlin, Pa.: Russell D. Earnest Associates, 1997), 2:656-658; and Gerard C. Wertkin, “The Watercolors of Durs Rudy: New Discoveries in Fraktur,” Folk Art 18, no. 2 (Summer 1993): 33–39. 4. With thanks to Catherine Matsen, Winterthur associate scientist, for the XRF analysis of the Durs Rudy metamorphosis. Winterthur scientists, paper conservators, and curators have been working together for decades to study the media used by fraktur artists. Instrumental analysis techniques such as XRF and Raman spectroscopy have allowed Winterthur to create a library of known colorants found on works in the collection. Interpretation of data, along with textual sources, clearly indicates that fraktur artists were using commercially available pigments rather than homemade concoctions of vegetable sources. See Janice H. Carlson and John Krill, “Pigment Analysis of Early American Watercolors and Fraktur,” Journal of the American Institute for Conservation. 18 (1978):19–32; and Jennifer L. Mass, Catherine R. Matsen, and Janice H. Carlson, “Materials of the Pennsylvania German Fraktur Artist,” The Magazine Antiques 168, no. 3 (September 2005): 128–135. 5. Several fraktur analyzed at Winterthur using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) all had gum Arabic as a binding medium. The technical aspects of fraktur making were the subject of the 2005 Winterthur exhibition Making Fancy: Materials and Methods in Pennsylvania German Fraktur, organized by paper conservator John Krill. |