Abrasions, Flaking Paint, and Pinpoint Losses

An oil painting of a harvest scene by Art Price.

This is one of my favorite paintings by my father:

Unfortunately, it’s in poor condition.  Susan Blakney, painting conservator and owner of West Lake Conservators, didn’t mince words during her examination.  “The abrasion goes into the ground, exposing it,” she said.

And it’s not just the large areas where no paint is left that present concerns.  The paint is flaking in many other places, too.  “It will continue to flake unless treated,” Susan warned.  “These areas need to be consolidated with an appropriate adhesive to stop the flaking.  I’d want to use a consolident on the areas that appear erupted to stabilize the deterioration.  Once the consolident is applied, a heated spatula could be used on any lifted paint to return it to plane.”  She added that in areas of pinpoint losses, she could in-paint to match the surrounding colors using watercolor brushes with very fine tips.

Painting conservator Susan Blakney
with the painting.

I’d love to see this painting returned to a semblance of its original appearance.  But I also realize this would require a considerable amount of in-painting.  Susan explained how a conservator approaches this type of challenging situation.  “For appropriate inpainting of a sizable loss,” she said, “it helps to become familiar with the artist’s work and techniques.  If absolutely necessary, you might base it on a single painting, but it’s far better to see a range of work.  Inpainting is done to replace missing portions of a puzzle by simulating the artist’s style.”  As for this painting:  “It would take some imagination to inpaint this because of the significant losses.”

Conservators are careful to make their inpainting work reversible, by using stable synthetic materials.   They may use a varnish as a base layer and/or special paints that can be removed with mild solvents such as mineral spirits.  This approach restores a painting to its original appearance while leaving the door open for future treatments.  As the field of art conservation continues to advance, new techniques will likely develop that could prompt a new treatment approach for the painting.  Or I could come across a photograph of the painting that clearly depicts the original details on areas that have been lost through abrasion.  There’s nothing unusual about revisiting a conservation treatment.  Frequently, paintings in museums have been through many.

It’s my hope that this severely abraded painting has reached its lowest point, preservation-wise.  It deserves an investment in care, quality storage, and professional attention.

Special thanks to Susan Blakney for generously sharing her painting conservation expertise during the past two weeks!

© 2011 Lee Price

The Uses of Varnish

Painting conservator Susan Blakney examines an oil painting
by Art Price.

I love it when conservation information is included at art museum exhibits.  Typically, you see a vibrant and beautiful image on the canvas and then to the right is a digital image that shows how dark the painting looked before treatment.  The label explains how the conservator painstakingly removed layer after layer of varnish to find the original colors hiding beneath.

And I’ve wondered:  Why’d people put on all that varnish in the first place?

Susan Blakney with an oil painting
by Art Price.

Well, first of all, it protects the painting.  Susan Blakney, painting conservator and owner of West Lake Conservators, carefully examined my father’s paintings to determine his approach to varnishing.  The first painting, the landscape of Noyac, showed no sign of varnish.  “Varnish would have helped,” she said.  “It would have provided a layer to protect the paint layer from grime.  Then when you remove the grime it would not have penetrated the paint. Grime is one of the many enemies that a painting conservator confronts on a daily basis.  And lots of grime can accumulate on a painting over the years.  It firmly attaches to some paint layers making cleaning very difficult to remove without specific formulations developed through a sequence of testing.”  As Susan asked me, “Can you imagine a window in a home that hasn’t been cleaned in 60 years?  Well, that’s the amount of grime on this painting.”

Apparently, all that darkening on varnished paintings that I noted at the beginning isn’t entirely the effect of the aging varnish.  It’s the grime, too.  “Paintings can lose the illusion of depth perspective because of grime,” Susan said.  “With cleaning, the lights get lighter and the darks get darker.  A disfigured painting for whatever reason alters our perception of its beauty and the artist’s talent.”

Susan noted that you can’t safely form an opinion on an artist’s use of varnish by looking at just one painting.  Sure enough, the second painting she looked at suggested that my father may have used a different artistic approach on this one (a harvest scene).  “Artists have all different opinions about varnish.  Some cover all their paintings, some never use it, and some use varnish in selective areas but not others.”  This second painting looked like it might fall into that third category – partially varnished.  Furthermore, some artists  may have different approaches according to the subject or the medium of the particular painting.

Susan Blakney examines an oil painting
of a harvest scene by Art Price.

Since Susan was conducting this examination in a hotel conference room, she lacked the equipment to firmly identify the presence of varnish on the second painting.  Conservators normally use ultraviolet light to detect varnish.  According to Susan, “If the painting fluoresces cloudy in ultraviolet light, it’s a sign of varnish or possibly an intentional glaze – perhaps a varnish-like medium with or without the addition of a clear pigment to deepen a passage or color.”

Conservators often use varnish as an isolating layer or base for their in-painting of losses.  Stable synthetic varnish makes an ideal base layer for this work because it can be easily removed at a later date without damage to the original painting beneath.  This is important because one of the cardinal rules of art conservation is to ensure that all materials used in treatments are reversible.  Varnish is sometimes applied by the artist himself or someone in a maintenance situation after a painting has hung for some time collecting a grime layer. The older the painting the more likely it is that there will be multiple layers of grime and varnish.  In order to freshen a painting’s appearance, an owner may even apply the varnish improperly while the painting is still in the frame, potentially leaving the painting firmly stuck to the frame.  The end result can be layer upon layer of varnish alternating with grime – and a painting that looks decidedly murkier than when it was originally painted.

Painting conservators who examine these layers of varnish and grime must determine the layer structure and decide which they want to remove.  Different resins with different solubility parameters may have been used. According to Susan, “We don’t usually attempt to remove grime and varnish at once although at times it is possible and desired.  We often use different formulations for each layer. Cleaning may be the most irreversible and dangerous part of the treatment if done improperly.  Unfortunately, the paint can be dissolved and/or abraded, which we call skimming. Some commercially available cleaning solutions can leave a very unevenly cleaned surface which is one of the most difficult tasks a conservator can encounter.  There is also the risk that glazes can be stripped off.  I never recommend that owners attempt to clean the paintings themselves. It took me years to develop the necessary skills.”

© 2011 Lee Price

Framing Mistakes To Avoid

Wire attachment with pounded nails on the
framing of an oil painting by Art Price.

In retrospect, it appears that my father didn't have a talent for hanging paintings.  There was nothing wrong with the canvas boards or the frames that he purchased, but apparently it was a mistake to pound nails into the frame and then string wire across them.

Susan Blakney, painting conservator and owner of West Lake Conservators, examined my father’s framing work dubiously.  “This stiff wire attachment is pretty bad,” she said.  “As a rule, never pound a nail into a frame.”

As Susan explains, framing is an important element that can (and should) both enhance the painting and protect it.  But when the framing is done improperly, it can put the artwork at risk.  Storage becomes a huge concern, especially since homeowners often store paintings together.  “Stacking paintings can cause damage.  The nails and screw eyes can easily abrade and poke the painting below or above them.”  Susan doesn’t recommend using nails. Always try to use screws with

metal clips made for framing, mending plates bent to

Detail of the
wire attachment.

conform to the reverse profile or a mirror hanger, to avoid jarring both the frame and the paint layer. Instead of a screw eye for the hanging wire, “I prefer a mirror hanger,” because it usually has two or more holes for screws to distribute the weight she said.  The two screws securing the hanger also should be positioned in the same line as the wire so all the weight is not put on the top screw at an angle defeating the purpose. A single screw eye often pulls out over time unless the painting and frame are very light.

During a painting examination, Susan always looks for evidence of dents and holes in the frame from previous installation or removal and even hanging to see if they line up with holes in the stretcher or if the frame has been turned upside down, to reconstruct the painting’s framing history.  On one of these paintings, the framing nail was pounded in and then beaten over, causing some damage to the frame’s structure.  As a result, the painting wasn't well supported and it had begun to fall through on one corner. Finishing nails are often found improperly driven through the stretcher bars and into the frame causing the wood to split, unnecessary vibration and damage to the wood when excavating the heads to un-frame.

The quality of the framing is important.  “Canvas board supports will warp if not evenly secured,” Susan warned.  “When there are humidity swings, the pressure points on the board will deform.”  When a canvas is stretched on a stretcher and there are no keys in the bar's corners or the tacks have been spaced too widely, ripples in the canvas can result.  “Some people skimp on stretcher bars,” she said.  “They shouldn’t.  A stretcher is like the foundation of a house.  If the paintings aren’t square, they won't even be able to lay flat on the wall.”

© 2011 Lee Price

Meeting with the Painting Conservator

Painting conservator Susan Blakney examines paintings by Art Price.

I was unprepared.  It was a hot day in the city and I had a million things to do.  After looking forward to this opportunity for a discussion with painting conservator Susan Blakney for nearly a year, I stupidly delayed all preparations until the last minute and then threw things together in a panic.

This isn’t the way to go about caring for your family collection.  When I rush, I get sloppy.  In order to make my 2 p.m. meeting with Susan, I grabbed the wrong two paintings, wrapped them in bubble wrap, dropped them in a plastic bag, and then ran a dozen city blocks through scorching heat and sweltering humidity.  I arrived sweating and out of breath.

Oil painting of a harvest scene by Art Price.

Of course, Susan Blakney of West Lake Conservators was a consummate professional.  Focusing on the paintings, she quickly moved to a close examination, interpreting them like a detective searching for the clues that would tell the stories behind the damage.  To me, she was unfailingly polite, but – and this may be my imagination or it may be the workings of my guilty conscience – in retrospect I think she may have been a little shocked by my treatment of my father’s paintings that afternoon.  From beginning to end, my actions were a textbook case of how not to treat a painting.

Looking back at my notes, some of her comments now appear a little pointed:

Oil painting of a scene in Noyac by Art Price.

“Think of paintings as an eggshell – easily cracked.”  (And I have to admit that eggs would probably not have survived my dash through the city.)

“Even bubble wrap can abrade.  If you must wrap it in anything, use glassine.”  (These paintings were seriously abraded already.  Who knows how much additional paint flaked off during the wrapping and unwrapping?)

“Never put a painting down

with a jarring motion.  It will loosen more paint.”  (I think Susan may have said this right after I tossed one of the paintings onto the table.)

All very embarrassing…

© 2011 Lee Price

Flesh, Blood, and Brains

Soon we’ll make the connection between the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s conservation treatment of Thomas Eakins’ The Gross Clinic and my own concerns about caring for the oil paintings in our family collection.  But first I thought I’d indulge in a few completely amateur thoughts on the greatness of The Gross Clinic.

Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (The Gross Clinic), 1875.  (Post-conservation, 2010).
Thomas Eakins, American, 1844-1916.  Oil on canvas, 8 feet x 6 feet 6 inches (243.8 x 198.1 cm).
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of the Alumni Association to Jefferson Medical College in 1878
and purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
with the generous support of more than 3,500 donors, 2007.
Image courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Detail: The Gross Clinic
by Thomas Eakins.

Follow the light.  While much of the room is dark, bright natural light shines down from above to highlight the areas where Eakins wants us to look closer.  The light illuminates the bare thigh of the patient, the deep incision, and the vivid spurt of blood.

Equally important as the flesh and blood, the light reflects off the forehead of Dr. Samuel Gross, physician and teacher.  For Dr. Gross, the light functions as a visual cue equivalent to a halo in a religious painting.  But this is the very antithesis of a religious painting, and it is Dr. Gross who is leading us out of darkness through his unflinching dedication to rationality—the world of science and medicine.

Detail: The Gross Clinic
by Thomas Eakins.

This is medicine practiced rigorously, unsentimentally.  Eakins’ brilliant use of subtle tones, dramatic lighting, and the meticulous staging of a wide variety of seemingly casual figures combine to bring a Rembrandt-like approach to the heady intellectual urban world of Philadelphia, one of the world’s leading scientific centers in 1875.

Within the picture itself, Eakins offers a range of possible responses to the conspicuously bloody operation.  Most notably, a woman withdraws in theatrical horror to the left of Dr. Gross.  Curiously, this was the initial reaction of many critics when the painting was first displayed at Philadelphia’s Centennial Exposition in 1876.  These critics were so offended by the realistic depiction of the flesh and blood that they missed the grace note of Dr. Gross.  Eakins celebrates the clear-headed determination of men of science like Dr. Gross, leading the next generation toward the medical advances of the twentieth century that would save countless lives and relieve much unnecessary suffering.  You can’t get there if you throw your hands over your eyes in horror.  Eakins calls us to examine life closely, without flinching.

The special exhibition “An Eakins Masterpiece Restored: Seeing The Gross Clinic Anew” can be seen at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Perelman Building) through January 9.  Treat yourself to one more gift this season and add a visit to your holiday schedule!

© 2010 Lee Price

Learning from the Masters

In one my favorite June and Art letters, my mother said, "I must be a very musty character, liking museums like this."

Like mother, like son.  I love museums.  I hate to think that means I'm a very musty character, but I guess there's a chance.

Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (The Gross Clinic),
1875.  Thomas Eakins, American, 1844-1916.
Oil on canvas, 8 feet x 6 feet 6 inches.
Image courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum
of Art.

Since I live near Philadelphia, my favorite hang-out is the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Therefore, as my thoughts turn toward appropriate care for the oil paintings in our family collection, I find myself considering the highest levels of care that are practiced at my hometown museum.

Through January 9 (so you’d better rush out there!), the Philadelphia Museum of Art is celebrating the conservation treatment of Thomas Eakins’ monumental painting The Gross Clinic in a special exhibition in the Perelman Building.  As I visited there recently and learned about the recent work that went into conserving Eakins’ great painting, my mind kept skipping back to thoughts of my family collection.

I decided to make the story of the conservation of The Gross Clinic a touchstone for a two-week exploration of the care and treatment of oil paintings.  Some friends at the Philadelphia Museum of Art have volunteered to help me out with advice along the way.

Much as I like The Gross Clinic (and I like it very, very much!), I thought I’d start by sharing my long-term favorite painting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  It’s a painting that has also benefited from a major conservation treatment (back in the early 1990s in this case).  This is Rogier van der Weyden’s 15th century masterpiece Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saint John:



The Crucifixion, with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist Mourning,
c. 1460. Rogier van der Weyden, Netherlandish, 1399/1400-1464.
Oil on panel. Left panel: 71 x 36 15/16 inches; right panel: 71 x 36 7/16 inches.
Image courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

Just wanted an excuse to share that!  On Wednesday, we’ll return to the real matter at hand, Eakins’ The Gross Clinic and the proper care and conservation of oil paintings.

© 2010 Lee Price