Four Studies of a Male Head: A Year of Research and Conservation

This project aimed to develop a comprehensive understanding of the painting Four Studies of a Male Head by closely examining its construction, materiality, and pre-treatment condition. Through technical analysis and documentation, we aimed to provide information on the artist’s painting materials and techniques; identify past interventions; and determine appropriate stabilization measures through minimal and reversible conservation treatment. The goal was to preserve both the material integrity and the oil-sketch character of a Rubens’s workshop study.

• Achieved a better understanding of the painting’s construction, materials, and condition through research and technical analysis.
• Improved the painting’s visual legibility, stabilized the thin oak panel, ground, and paint layer, returning the work as closely as possible to the artist’s original intention.
• Removed the aged varnishes and the discolored overpaint.
• Added a stable, reversible, saturating, and protective layer of varnish.
• Prepared the painting to be displayed alongside other paintings by Rubens and his workshop in Getty’s galleries.
• Further contextualized Getty’s holdings within a broader international and regional framework of Rubens scholarship and conservation practice.

About Four Studies of a Male Head

Four Studies of a Male Head (about 1617–1620) is an oil painting on panel attributed to the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens. Acquired by J. Paul Getty in 1971, it has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition. Rubens studied the physiognomy and expressions of a variety of men and women, including several African models, in preparation for painting multi-figure religious and mythological subjects. In this work, a pupil or assistant in his workshop copied the head of an African man, seen from four different angles and portraying different emotions, from Rubens’s large oil sketch of the same subject, in the collection of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. In the Getty sketch, the artist rearranged the head studies to fit within a horizontal oak panel.

This work is a key example of Rubens’s workshop practice, offering insights into his systematic training, and demonstrating how oil-sketches or modelli were used in his studio. What began as an effort to improve the painting's legibility and visual coherence revealed the need for structural stabilization and prompted a broader examination of its material history. The study and conservation of this artwork was led by Mary Godot, Department of Paintings Conservation Graduate Intern from 2025–26, and formed the central project of her internship program, which provided focused, hands-on experience through the in-depth study and treatment of a single work, supported by close mentorship and cross‑departmental collaboration.

A detailed account of the methodology used during this project, including images, graphs, and Godot’s processes and conclusions, can be found in the Project Details section. Generally, the methodology of this project included:

• focused research about the painting’s history, context, and past conservation treatments
• documentation using a variety of imaging techniques, including photometric stereo analysis and examination under different lighting conditions
• scanning X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy to map the distribution of chemical elements present in the paints, allowing inference of which pigments were used
• scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to analyze the stratigraphy and materiality of small removed samples
• treatment of the painting, including removal of varnish and overpaint, revarnishing, filling, and inpainting

Mary Godot, Graduate Intern 2025–2026, Department of Paintings Conservation, Getty Museum
Kari Rayner, Associate Conservator, Department of Paintings Conservation, Getty Museum
Natasha Reich, PhD Candidate, California Institute of Technology; Technical Studies Research, Getty Conservation Institute
Karen Trentelman, Senior Scientist, Head of Technical Studies Research, Getty Conservation Institute
Anne Woollett, Curator, Department of Paintings, Getty Museum

Partner

Kristin Holder, Assistant Conservator, Department of Paintings Conservation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art