David Bates

Oil on canvas, 44 x 69.5cm. Private Collection. Reproduced by kind permission of the owners.

 

Condition

The painting had suffered a small tear, with paint loss around it.  In addition it was discoloured by dirt and varnish that had yellowed and become dull. The frame had suffered losses and the slip was loose.

 

Technical Examination

The painting was examined with ultra violet light to see if there was a varnish layer, and to gain more information about areas of matt paint.  Although partially obscured by the dirt layer, the even green fluorescence seen over the whole painting indicated the presence of an aged varnish layer.  The matt looking areas of paint did not fluoresce in the same way, appearing dark in the blue light and against the varnish.  The character of the marks, and their location over thinner areas of paint where the ground was showing would point to retouching that has been applied over the varnish.  As it was known that the painting had been cleaned before, and the matt brushstrokes were much cruder than the fine detailed work of the original, it was concluded that these were not original.

 

Cleaning

The surface dirt was removed easily as was the varnish.  Speckles of brown were removed along with the dirt from the sky. The retouching was removed along with the dirt and was found to make no visible difference.

 

Repair and Retouching

Loose flakes of paint immediately surrounding the tear were secured using adhesive.  The tear was repaired by joining the strands of threads together with adhesive.  Once the painting had been varnished with a synthetic and reversible resin.  The damage was filled, textured and retouched using dry pigment and resin.

 

 

A final coat of synthetic resin was applied and the painting then reframed.  The frame had been repaired and the loss restored.

Whole front, before treatment

Whole reverse, before treatment.

Detail of the sky, during cleaning.  The speckles of brown were removed along with the dirt.

Whole front, after treatment.