Technique

Painted very thinly, the paint barely tinted and brushed lightly on the canvas, and areas rubbed or scraped down. A few details (such as the windows) are painted with fine linear brushstrokes. The figures were painted more thickly but then appear to have been partly rubbed out.

Conservation History

Earlier photographs suggest it has darkened, though this might partly be the result of lighting and the photographic process.

According to the Freer Gallery of Art records, heavy varnish was partially removed in 1921. The painting was relined and resurfaced in 1925, resurfaced in 1931, cleaned and resurfaced in 1935 and 1950. Ben Johnson noted in 1965 that retouchings on the fence had whitened, and the varnish was discoloured; it was cleaned and revarnished, inpainted and again varnished.

Frame

ca 1919: Flat Whistler frame, American.

It has been regilded.