Collections Update at Taliesin
Rebecca Hagen | Oct 17, 2025
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation’s portrait of Anna Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright’s mother, has just returned from treatment at The Conservation Center in Chicago.
Originally painted by John Young Hunter in 1916, Wright acquired it for Taliesin in 1939 and installed it above the fireplace in his drafting studio.
Before conservation on the left and after conservation on the right. Anna Lloyd Wright, John Young Hunter (Scottish, 1874-1955), 1916, oil on canvas, 49 x 40 inches, Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Collections, 1108.200.
In the conservation studio, the entire painted surface of the canvas was cleaned, and the area of loss was in-painted to match its surroundings. After being attached to a new stretcher, a sheet of coroplast was installed on the back, which serves as a barrier in case rainwater were ever to leak through the chimney. The painting appears much brighter now, making the rich purple of Anna’s dress more vibrant and exposing the gentle lavender ribbon on her bonnet.
Be sure to look for the painting during your next tour at Taliesin. We are grateful to conservator Amber Schabdach for her work on the painting. This project was made possible by a gift from Bryan Hagen in honor of Rebecca Hagen.
The portrait after conservation and rehanged in Wright’s studio at Taliesin. Anna Lloyd Wright, John Young Hunter (Scottish, 1874-1955), 1916, oil on canvas, 49 x 40 inches, Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Collections, 1108.200.
After conservation treatment, detail. Anna Lloyd Wright, John Young Hunter (Scottish, 1874-1955), 1916, oil on canvas, 49 x 40 inches, Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Collections, 1108.200.
Coromandel Screen, front, artist unknown, 17-18th century, lacquer, wood, gold, copper alloy, 120” x 246”, Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Collections, 1185.058.
Over at Taliesin’s Hillside Theater, two of the Collection’s largest objects are in the midst of being conserved.
In January, we announced our plans to conserve a twelve-panel Chinese lacquer Coromandel screen thanks in part to funding from the SC Johnson Foundation, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Since then, The Conservation Studio has been completing structural repairs and beginning surface treatment. The project is large and complex and we anticipate the screen returning to the Theater in 2026.
Visitors to the Hillside Theater today might be surprise to learn that this screen is being conserved because it looks like it is on display right now. What is on display is a full-size reproduction of six of the panel’s twelve screens, creating from high-resolution photographs.
The Hillside Theater curtain is also benefiting from conservation work. In 2023 we announced that we had received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to preserve the Hillside Curtain through the installation of new protective curtains. While planning for the installation of this project, we realized that the historic curtain needed treatment as well.
The historic curtain consists of a white canvas ground with the design rendered in felt, yarn, and gold lamé. The curtain is supported by 40 S-hooks attached with a yarn loop that is sewn directly to the canvas ground. Several of the yarn loops had failed within the last year, and we feared that more could break without a comprehensive repair. After consultation with the conservators, we determined that this issue was too complicated to address on-site at Taliesin. A proper long-term repair required taking the curtain off view for the rest of the year.
The protective curtains and the tracks they run on have been installed in the theater, but currently they lack the historic curtain which they are supposed to protect. The curtain will return to the Hillside Theater in 2026.
