What the Friends are doing
The Friends of the Turnbull Library successfully applied for funding from the National Library of New Zealand’s Macklin Bequest, augmented by individual donations, to achieve an exciting restoration project. Several oil paintings from the Drawings, Paintings and Prints Collection, including portraits and landscapes, were repaired and restored over two years. Conservator Caroline Izzo (pictured studying a Coromandel scene painted by Charles Blomfield) completed most of the work in 2009.
Bequests and donations are very effective ways of supporting the Alexander Turnbull Library. The Library always welcomes bequests that may be of historical value, including books, documents, paintings, drawings, family papers and photographs. Financial bequests – made direct to the Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust or to the Friends of the Turnbull Library – are used to support the Library’s work of collecting, preserving, and improving the dissemination of knowledge of New Zealand’s heritage.
The Friends have been successful in obtaining a grant of $10,000 from the National Library’s Macklin Bequest to be used towards the restoration of several oil paintings in the Turnbull Library’s collections.
The first painting to be restored is a portrait of Walter Turnbull — father of Alexander Turnbull — which was part of Alexander’s own collection. Some 40 years after Alexander’s death, the painting suffered water damage while stored in the attic of the old Turnbull House.