This page will feature updates about ongoing research, news about new discoveries, and upcoming exhibits.

We look forward to assisting anyone exhibiting Cheney’s paintings to the public. We are in very preliminary discussion with certain institutions for a Cheney exhibition sometime within the next five years and welcome inquiries from others.

If you have new discoveries of Cheney’s work, or other information, we are happy to showcase it on these pages.

Honfleur Restoration

One of the most interesting aspects of bringing Russell Cheney’s work alive again is the process of restoration. In many cases, years and years of varnish build up, smoke and grime severely affected the original colors of the paintings. Ulrich Birkmaier, until recently chief conservator of the Wadsworth Atheneum and now senior conservator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum, has worked on several of Russell’s works. The results are breathtaking. An example below is Honfleur, 29×26″, painted in 1924.

“The good news is that the result is just simply spectacular, it’s one of those rare transformations, and without the varnish removal the painting would basically have been lost.”  —Ulrich Birkmaier