X-radiograph(s) of "Jane Brown" 

Curator: Here, we have an X-radiograph of John Singleton Copley's "Jane Brown," currently held at the Harvard Art Museums. The film measures 14 by 17 inches. Editor: It's a ghostly portrait, almost like a photographic negative, stripping away the color and leaving only the structure. Curator: Exactly. The radiograph allows us to examine Copley’s process, the underlying layers of paint, and how he built up the composition. It reveals the materiality hidden beneath the surface. Editor: It's fascinating to consider how this radiographic view recontextualizes the portrait. It moves beyond a mere representation of status and reveals the artist’s labor, the very act of creation. Curator: Indeed, this process makes visible the labor typically invisible in art history, inviting us to consider Copley's methods, his revisions, and the very making of the image. Editor: It brings into question the traditional role of museums in preserving and interpreting art; this radiograph offers a very different kind of preservation, doesn't it? A preservation of process. Curator: Precisely, offering a new lens through which we might consider the social contexts of artistic creation. Editor: It certainly shifts our focus away from the sitter and towards the hands that crafted her image.