BACC Staff Conserve Century-Old Mural in San Diego Home

BACC conservators were called out of the lab this July to carry out a conservation treatment on an early 20th-century relief mural by a well-known San Diego Impressionist painter. Although the mural is undated it is likely more than 100 years old. Remarkably, it still survives in its San Diego home. 

The piece features a tranquil desert scene that was first sculpted in relief on the wall, and then later painted in earth tones with splashes of bright color. When coupled with the beautiful craftsman architectural features of the room, the California Impressionist mural instantly transports one back to the San Diego of the early 20th century.

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Paintings conservators Morgan Wylder and Bianca Garcia (first photo) led this mural project but used the opportunity to cross-train paper conservator Sara Bisi (shown in second photo, on the right, with Bianca Garcia on the left) in mural conservation as a part of BACC’s NEH Cares Act Grant initiative.

​The NEH Cares Act Grant is funding BACC’s conservators to cross-train one another within their specialties and is designed to strengthen the organization's ability to work during the economic downturn that has occurred due to the health crisis. Cross-training core staff develops and fine-tunes the team’s capacity to respond to fluctuations in project workflow, and ensures both that all team members have work during this unpredictable time and that all conservation projects can be completed in a timely manner for BACC’s member institutions and clients.

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The BACC team stabilized some local areas of cracking plaster on the mural, gently and safely dusted the piece, and inpainted a few small, scattered plaster and paint losses throughout the room to visually reintegrate them into the greater composition. Now the mural is both structurally stable and visually refreshed. It is complete, once again.  

Considering its age, the fact that the mural was found in such good condition is a testament to the generations of careful stewards who have owned the house since its creation. This, of course, includes the current owners of the house, who admirably prioritized the preservation of the mural so that it will continue to live on. This project reveals how it's not only institutions like museums that preserve local art and heritage for future generations, but it's individuals within our community, as well.