Secret Writing Revealed
- Published:
- 26 February 2025
The 2022-2024 conservation work in the Shell Gallery uncovered an exciting discovery – hidden letters, found behind a watercolour painting. The team were delighted and surprised to find this secret text, revealed for the first time in many decades. This gives us clues as to how the Shell Gallery was originally made.
The watercolours were removed from the gallery, in order to clean and conserve them. The edges of the paper had become brown and discoloured, where the watercolour had been attached to the wall.
Whilst conserving the watercolour panels a fascinating discovery was made about a painting of a shell and its shadow, on white paper.
The watercolours were removed from the gallery, in order to clean and conserve them. The edges of the paper had become brown and discoloured, where the watercolour had been attached to the wall.
Whilst conserving the watercolour panels a fascinating discovery was made about a painting of a shell and its shadow, on white paper.
During an inspection of the painting, two supporting layers of paper were found behind the watercolour, perhaps intended to stiffen and strengthen the panel whilst on the wall. Following treatment to clean and dry the paper, conservators were able to gently separate the watercolour from the sheets of backing paper.
By holding the backing paper up to the light hidden writing was discovered. Lit from behind, letters were revealed. The words ‘not le’ appear to be written on the top line, and ‘he Rai’ appear on the second line. These letters appear to be painted using a brush and they have not been seen since the watercolour was originally painted and installed within the gallery.
What could these letters be telling us? It was common at this time to recycle paper, which was expensive - but what was the original purpose for this page, and this writing?
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