Jean Dommermuth
As a paintings conservator in private practice based in New York City, Jean Dommermuth has carried out conservation treatments of the highest standard for artists, dealers, collectors, and museums while at the same time pursuing academic and research interests.
She earned her BA in Art History from the University of Illinois, her MA in Art History and Diploma in Art Conservation from the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and completed a two-year internship focusing on the treatment of old master paintings at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, Cambridge University. In addition, she has an MBA from the University of Illinois. Her ongoing involvement with the Acton Collection at Villa La Pietra, New York University, Florence, began when she spent two years in residence there as a post-graduate fellow.
In addition to working in private practice, Jean is an Institute Lecturer for the Conservation Center where she teaches conservation techniques and ethics, and the history of painting technique. She has continued to act as a conservation consultant for the paintings collection at La Pietra, returning regularly and supervising students on treatment projects.
Jean has published on the painting techniques of artists including Sebastiano del Piombo, Bronzino, and Giacomo Ceruti. She is a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation, a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a Fulbright Specialist, and a member of ArtTable. In 2020, Jean won the Suzanne Deal Booth Rome Prize for Historic Preservation and Conservation. She began creating the podcast What Is a Painting? in 2022.
Publications and Presentations
Of Birds and Art and Books - A Review of Bird: Exploring the Winged World, Phaidon Press 2021
Linnaean Society of New York, May 2022
https://www.linnaeannewyork.org/book-film-reviews/
American Academy in Rome Shop Talk featuring Jean Dommermuth - Queste cose non durabili che passarono com' un ombra
February 15, 2021
https://www.aarome.org/events/calendar/jean-dommermuth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3UgHY_Y580
A Convenient Method: Canvas Painting in 16th Century Florence
Post Prints of the Paintings Specialty Group, Annual Meeting of the American Institute for Conservation, Houston, May 2018
Conservation Practice in the Acton Collection, Villa La Pietra: A Portrait of Hortense Acton by James Montgomery Flagg
January 9, 2017
https://lapietra.nyu.edu/collection-conservation/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WUzIdCdiyI&t=6s
Villa La Pietra: Twenty Years Since That First Visit
NEWSGRAM News in brief from the Conservation Center
Issue 32, September 2015
https://ifa.nyu.edu/pdfs/publications/Newsgram32_VillaLaPietra.pdf
Alumni Career Panel
Presented at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, April 28, 2015
Conserving Kirchbach: Meanings, Materials and Techniques
Presented at the Museum of Biblical Art, New York, December 2013
Building an Effective Decision-making Model for Conservation of the Acton Collection, Villa La Pietra, New York University in Florence
Presented at the ICOM-DEMHIST conference The Artifact, Its Context and Their Narrative, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 2012
Dianne Modestini Discusses the Treatment of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi with Jean Dommermuth ‘96
NEWSGRAM News in brief from the Conservation Center
Issue 12, January 2012
https://ifa.nyu.edu/pdfs/publications/Newsgram12_SalvatorMundi.pdf
Retouching in Egg Tempera
American Institute for Conservation Paintings Specialty Group Catalogue, 2011
Two Portraits by Giacomo Ceruti, an Examination
Post Prints of the Paintings Specialty Group, Annual Meeting of the American Institute for Conservation, Milwaukee, May 2010
Villa La Pietra Research and Conservation 2: The Saletta della Rovine
New York University, 2009
Flights of Imagination: The Birds of the Saletta della Rovine
Presented at Italian Art at La Pietra: Transatlantic Conversations, a symposium for art historians at New York University, Villa La Pietra, New York University, Florence, March 2008
Richard Lippold’s The Sun
In Gilded Metals: History, Technology and Conservation, Terry Drayman-Weisser, ed., Archetype Publications, 2007
The Ashby Holy Family by Sebastiano del Piombo
The Hamilton Kerr Institute Bulletin 3, 2000
Projects and Press
Fulbright Specialist Program, Tangible Heritage Conservation, University of Pretoria, South Africa
August, 2022 and August, 2023
https://www.up.ac.za/tangible-heritage-conservation/article/2971795/guest-lectures-
Women of Substance: Nevelson Engages New Conservators
Nevelson Legacy Council, May 19, 2021
https://www.nevelsonchapel.org/updates/2021/women-of-substance
Lightning Strikes Twice: Another Lost Jacob Lawrence Surfaces
By Hilarie M. Sheets
New York Times
Published March 1, 2021, Updated March 6, 2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/arts/design/jacob-lawrence-painting-resurfaces.html
New Rome Prize Winners and Italian Fellows
American Academy in Rome
July 22, 2020
https://www.aarome.org/news/features/new-rome-prize-winners-italian-fellows
Fritz Glarner Artwork Shines Again in Skyscraper Lobby Restoration
Rockefeller Group
April 16, 2019
Lecture on Conservation of 19th Century Monumental Painting
International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
Submitted by Kate Stonor on 16 Dec 2013
https://www.iiconservation.org/node/4467
Touching Up a Merry Old Soul
Ralph Gardner Jr. on the Restoration of a Maxfield Parrish Painting at the St. Regis
Wall Street Journal
Sept. 8, 2013
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324549004579063281961456874
King Cole Gets a Cleaning; Pipe and Bowl Are Next
By Glenn Collins
New York Times
Mar 27, 2007
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/nyregion/27cole.html?searchResultPosition=9
Credit: Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times
King Cole, a Grimy Old Soul, Heads for a Cleaning
By Glenn Collins
New York Times
Jan. 17, 2007
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/nyregion/17painting.html
Jean Dommermuth has personally treated artworks for the following organizations as well as many other individual and corporate clients.
The Alccopley Estate
The American Museum of Natural History
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Art Students League of New York
Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
Columbia University Libraries
The Dahesh Museum of Art
The Francis Newton Souza Estate
The Greentree Foundation
The Grey Art Museum, New York University
The Joan Mitchell Foundation
The Jon Schueler Estate
The LeRoy Neiman Foundation
The Museum of Modern Art
The Newark Museum of Art
The Peabody Essex Museum
Public Art for Public Schools
The Rockefeller Group
The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation
The Saint Regis Hotel
Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art
The Studio Museum in Harlem
United States Military Academy, West Point
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
The Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University
