After hiding behind layers of white paint for more than 40 years, the work of Roy Henderson is making its triumphant return to the western walls of Allen Hall.
In the late 1930s, five graduate students painted a series of murals in Allen Hall under the direction of Conrad Albrizio, a founding member of the University’s art department. Originally, the murals comprised indoor frescos on the East and West ends of Allen, the Allen Hall Portico and another large painting on the exterior of Hill Memorial Library, known to have been destroyed.
The murals were painted over in the 1960s, hiding them from the world until a 2001 restoration project brought two of them back to life. The restoration project restored the interior murals on the east side of Allen Hall, as well as the mural under the building’s east portico.
University alumna and Mural Restorer Cheryl Elise Grenier discovered Henderson’s work on the west end of Allen during her 2001 restoration project. She has begun the process of restoring the final mural.
“During the 2001 conservation, the paintings on Allen Hall west end were also discovered via archival research and testing of the surface,” Grenier said in an e-mail.
Henderson’s mural in fresco was part of his master’s thesis – “Execution of a Mural in Fresco” – in which he detailed the reasoning behind the appearance of his work.
“The function of the building suggested the subject matter to be used,” Henderson wrote.
At the time, Allen Hall served as the home for the school of Arts and Sciences. Therefore, he decided to use a “representation of the arts on the north wall, sciences on the south wall, and the west wall [serves as] a transition between the two.”
In order to restore the murals in 2001, Grenier removed three layers of paint with various chemicals. However, restoring Henderson’s work could be more challenging, according to English Department Chair Rick Moreland.
“The existing stairway had to be removed and rebuilt because the murals had been plastered over when the stairs were built,” he said. “The new stairs have been set back from the murals both to protect the murals and to make them easier to see. The plaster will now need to be carefully removed to reveal and restore the murals underneath.”
Grenier said mural recovery is always difficult, but this project should turn out well.
“It will be painstaking work as usual, but we will have great results from what I can tell in the testing phase,” Grenier explained. “I see all kinds of very damaged artwork in Italy, where most of my work is. These paintings are in relatively good condition by comparison.”
Although there is no official timeline for the completion of the mural, Moreland hopes to have the project completed by the end of the summer. He said the project is funded by “private money raised by Interim Dean of the College of Art and Design Ken Carpenter.”
 
____ Contact Joshua Bergeron at [email protected]