Meet Lydia Vagts

Q: What exactly do you do at the MFA?

I’m a paintings conservator, which means I care for and treat paintings on canvas, panel, and sometimes wall paintings. We don’t really use the word “restore” anymore because it can have some shady connotation and we don’t want to be seen that way! Our goal is preservation and careful treatment, not making something look “brand new.”

I specialize in traditional paintings—oil and tempera works from earlier centuries. Modern and contemporary paintings are almost a separate specialty because their materials and techniques can be so different.

Q: How did you get interested in art conservation?

I was a studio art major in college and got a summer internship at the MFA in the Education Department, helping teach art camp classes. I thought teaching might be a good path for something I could do with my art degree.  But it didn't go very well and I quickly realized I knew nothing about kids!

One wonderful thing the MFA did for interns was take us behind the scenes to different departments. When we visited Conservation, the head of the department was sitting in front of my favorite painting in the entire museum – The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit by John Singer Sargent – and he was actually touching it! I had no idea that was even possible. I fell in love with the field on the spot.

It took several years of apprenticeship, training programs in Rome and Delaware (where I earned my master’s degree), plus internships and fellowships before I landed an actual job in the field of conservation.

Q: What kinds of paintings do you typically work on?

At the MFA, I often work on Renaissance Italian paintings, including many altarpieces in the last few years, and 18th-century American portraits like those by John Singleton Copley. I also work on 19th-century Impressionist paintings and anything connected to John Singer Sargent.

I’ve loved Sargent’s work since I was a little kid growing up in Cambridge and visiting the museum with my parents. When I once aspired to be a painter, I hoped to paint like Sargent.  But I definitely do not have those skills, and so I chose to pursue other avenues in the art world.! Conservation became my way of staying deeply connected to art.

I’ve probably treated more Sargent paintings than any other conservator, including many at the MFA and others at institutions like the Worcester Art Museum.

Q: What are some memorable projects you’ve worked on?

One highlight was cleaning and treating the mural cycle in the Rotunda and Colonnade at the MFA back in 1999. Fun fact: I left a tiny square of dirt on one of the murals over the staircase to demonstrate just how dirty the surface had been before cleaning. The next time you visit the MFA, look for it!

Another unforgettable project was cleaning Houses at Auvers by Vincent van Gogh. It was an incredibly satisfying treatment and led me into years of research on Van Gogh’s materials and techniques. That work culminated in a technical essay I wrote for the catalogue of the MFA exhibition Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits.

Q: How long can a single treatment take?

A single treatment can take anywhere from a few months to several years. Often we get interrupted by other treatments that take higher priority (say something is requested for loan to another museum for an exhibition or has to go up on display at the MFA suddenly). For example I have a painting I have now been working on since 2017 but in the mean time I have worked on several large portraits and two entire altarpieces!

Q: What tools or technologies do you use that might surprise people?

We do our own x-rays at the MFA at very similar power levels to the x-rays you get in a doctor’s office. We sometimes send sculptures to MGH or the Brigham for CT scanning if there are questions about layer structure or composition. And  a lot of work is being done on cleaning artwork with lasers, with some very striking results on things like lichens on outdoor sculpture.

Q: How do you decide what to clean and what to leave untouched?

Our goal is always to bring a painting as close as possible to what we believe the artist’s original intent was so we strive to remove anything that might have been added over time by previous conservators/restorers that is inappropriate. But sometimes the condition of the original might not be very good so that removing old retouching or an old and yellowed varnish might actually reveal more problems than we want to show.

Everything we do on a painting is carried out with many consultations with our colleagues in curatorial departments and in the end it is up to them how they want to see the art in their collections look in our galleries.

Q: What led you to settle in Watertown?

I grew up in Cambridge and married a Cambridge fanatic, but we were priced out when we started looking for a house. With one baby and two big dogs, we desperately needed more space and a yard.

We stumbled upon a house in the East End by chance and fell in love with the garden. Both of us made such deep connections with our neighbors and community over our twenty-three years here, that neither of us can imagine living anywhere else!

We were very lucky to be able to find a second home on this same street, when our marriage eventually ended.  

By the way, I’m devoted to our East End food stores, and one of my daughters got her first job at Fastachi. I’m well supplied with nuts and chocolates!

I also love walking regularly at Mount Auburn Cemetery. My parents are buried there, so it’s a place of deep meaning for me, and I can visit their special spot all the time.

Q: What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

Gardening is my big hobby. I’m constantly trying to save my beloved plants from the army of bunnies that regularly visit and gobble them up. My dog adores the bunnies – especially the babies – and once tried to bring one inside as a pet. Unfortunately, our two cats are ruthless hunters, so that would not have ended well!

Q: What’s a small, everyday moment in Watertown that brings you joy?

I love walking around my neighborhood with the dog a few times a day and seeing what’s growing in my neighbors’ gardens, or stopping to chat with them or seeing fun sights like the occasional owl or hawk.

Q: What are you planning for your garden this spring?

This spring my goal is to replenish my soil as I recently read a fascinating book about fungi and want to see what I can do to increase the fungal networks underground in my soil for better plant growth. And of course I have to repair all the damage done by all those #(&$^*374 bunnies in my yard!

Q: What book, podcast, or show are you enjoying lately?

I am obsessed with all things Olympics so have been watching non-stop for the last week. I will be very sad when they are over!