Marigene H. Butler, art conservation pioneer and retired head conservator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, has died at 92
An expert in the scientific examination and restoration of deteriorating paintings, she analyzed famous artwork around the world and worked in Philadelphia for two decades.
Marigene H. Butler, 92, of Gwynedd, longtime head of conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and pioneer in the scientific examination, analysis, and restoration of influential paintings and other works, died Friday, Feb. 23, of a staph infection at Jefferson Lansdale Hospital.
From 1977 until her retirement in 1997, Ms. Butler worked with then-Philadelphia Museum of Art director Anne d’Harnoncourt and other professionals as the expert on the care, preservation, and transportation of its treasured paintings, sculptures, furniture, and other decorative art. She oversaw the construction of the museum’s new conservation laboratories in 1977 and was a master of polarized light microscopy, crystallography, and other groundbreaking scientific analysis procedures that emerged in the 1950s, ‘60s, and later.
She could identify the kind of canvas, chemical materials, and stylistic techniques used by the world’s most famous painters, and she told the Courier-Post newspaper of Camden in 1979: “Restoring a painting is a painstaking and very delicate process. It calls for a lot of skilled detective work.”
She recognized signature pigments and fibers used by Cézanne, van Eyck, and other masters, and was invited to evaluate some of the world’s most invaluable and irreplaceable paintings. She did up-close-and-personal inspections of the Ghent Altarpiece in Belgium and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.
She told The Inquirer in 1983 that the increase in loans among museums had a big impact on her responsibilities in Philadelphia. “This museum had never done a lot of packing of furniture until last month when we had to ship hundreds of boxes to Texas,” she said. “We feel we’re experts now.”
Ms. Butler developed training courses and workshops for the new procedures she encountered over her 44-year career and shared them with countless colleagues, interns, museum trainees, and graduate students. She traveled the world, published books and many articles and papers about art, and was quoted often in newspapers across the country.
She served as chairman of the National Conservation Advisory Council and trustee for the National Institute of Conservation, and was a fellow at the American Institute of Conservation, Royal Microscopical Society, and International Institute of Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.
She worked with other notable artists and scientists at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Intermuseum Conservation Association in Ohio. It takes “patience, skilled hands, and a visual orientation” to be an effective conservator, she told the Courier-Post. “You have to be a good problem solver. Each work calls for an individual solution.”
Born July 20, 1931, in Ann Arbor, Mich., Marigene Harrington was raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., and in Caldwell, N.J. She was a talented painter as a girl and graduated as valedictorian of her high school class. “She always loved art,” said her son Paul.
She spent idyllic summers with her family in Marlboro, Vt., and grew to appreciate nature and the area’s close-knit community. She earned a bachelor’s degree in art history at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in 1953 and won its Janet F. Brooks Memorial Prize for exceptional painting.
She met Daniel Butler on their way to an all-night square dance, and they married in 1953, and had sons Dan Jr. and Paul, and daughter Kate. They lived in West Mount Airy for 30 years before moving to Gwynedd in 2010. Her husband died in 2013.
Ms. Butler worked at the Fogg Art Museum from 1953 to 1955, the Art Institute of Chicago from 1968 to 1973, and the Intermuseum Conservation Association’s laboratory from 1974 to 1977. She was on boards of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum and Wyck Association in Philadelphia, and most recently sat on the art committee at the Foulkeways at Gwynedd retirement community.
She returned to Marlboro often over the years, was active in local events, and attended the Newfane Congregational Church. She liked to swim, hike along the Wissahickon Creek, host family dinners, and sing along at music festivals.
She was interested in social issues and a member of the League of Women Voters. She doted on her family and enjoyed reading first to her children and then to her five grandsons and great-granddaughter.
“She was a very strong person and dedicated to her family,” her son Paul said. Her family said in a tribute: “Marigene imbued her children and grandchildren with a love of nature, science, and art.”
In addition to her children, grandsons, and great-granddaughter, Ms. Butler is survived by a sister and other relatives. A sister died earlier.
Services are to be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 23, at Foulkeways at Gwynedd, 1120 Meetinghouse Rd., Gwynedd, Pa. 19436; and 11 a.m. Saturday, July 27, at Newfane Congregational Church, 11 Church St., Newfane, Vt. 05345.
Donations in her name may be made to the Newfane Congregational Church, Box 27, Newfane, Vt. 05346; and the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Lower Lake Rd., South Hadley, Mass. 01075.