Lady in Red (painting)

In 2021, the National Art Gallery of Sri Lanka, located in the affluent Cinnamon Gardens neighborhood of the capital city Colombo, was undergoing a project to preserve and restore 239 of its art pieces. From charcoal and watercolor to acrylics and oil paintings, the collection at the gallery spanned two centuries, and a diverse mix of mediums. Due to an insufficient number of experts in the field in Sri Lanka, easel painting conservation expert Jennifer Myers was brought in from the United States to take up the task of working on a national collection of this caliber. Myers was National Endowment for the Humanities Painting Conservation Fellow at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia.^[2]

On 11 December 2021 the team was working on a portrait painting of Ananda Samarakoon, painted by A. C. G. S. Amarasekara, when Myers noticed a few inconsistencies with the painting and its canvas. The fabric of the canvas on the front of the painting was different than that of the back. Furthermore, they noticed an odd dust pattern. Due to the painting being done horizontally in landscape orientation, the dust should have been collecting at the bottom of the canvas frame, but had instead collected along the side of the frame.^[3]