Kneeling Woman

Ralph Stackpole

Ralph Stackpole’s sculpture Kneeling Woman, 1943, is on view in the FDR Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, NY. While the sculpture was commissioned by FDR, once it arrived on site he did not appreciate the artist’s new style of working and banished the sculpture to an isolated location on the grounds of the estate. Reinterpretation of the sculpture endeavored to conserve the sculpture and bring it into the museum building. Conservation included carefully removing decades of soiling and biological growth by hand, consolidating weak areas of the Travertine marble, and toning some irreversible staining using archival and reversible materials. We also designed and fabricated the base and consulted regarding its display.