A fundamental part of operations at the Gallery, the Conservation Department's objective is the preservation, study, and presentation of Yale's collections. Gallery conservators care for the paintings and oversee outside conservation of sculpture, decorative arts, Asian art, African art, numismatics, and ancient art, while works of art on paper are cared for by paper conservators at the Yale Center for British Art. Through ongoing research conservators investigate materials and techniques using such means as microscopy, x-radiography, and infrared reflectography. The department is also a center for research and teaching. Conservators work alongside their curatorial colleagues to improve scholarship of the collections, and courses in conservation and connoisseurship are regularly taught using Gallery collections and facilities.

The Conservation Department works closely with Gallery colleagues to evaluate and monitor environments for works of art on display, in storage, and during their travel to other institutions for exhibitions. In recent years this has included working with Yale staff, architects, and designers to oversee the reinstallation of the American Art Galleries and to move the entire collection offsite during the Gallery's renovation.




Antonio Pollaiuolo
Hercules and Deianira (detail), ca. 1470
Oil on canvas transferred from panel, 21 1/2 x 31 3/16 in. (54.6 x 79.2 cm)
University purchase from James Jackson Jarves
1871.42

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  Neroccio de’ Landi
Annunciation (detail), ca. 1475–80
Tempera on poplar panel, 19 5/16 x 50 9/16 in. (49 x 128.5 cm)
University purchase from James Jackson Jarves
1871.63

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  Patricia Sherwin Garland patricia.garland@yale.edu
Patricia Sherwin Garland received her degree in the history of art, with a minor in fine arts, from Connecticut College. She received her conservation training as an apprentice and subsequently worked for twenty years at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. Since 1978, she has been the consultant painting conservator to the Josef Albers Foundation and has worked privately as well. Presently the Gallery's Senior Conservator of Paintings, she is also an adjunct lecturer in the History of Art Department. Download curriculum vitae