Shepherds

The painting „the Shepherds“ is just about to be touched up: in this picture you see the painting after being mounted on  a new stretcher. It has already been cleaned and the paintlosses have been filled in. The second most visible stage in the restoration of paintings, just after cleaning, is the retouching with its final varnish.

Virgin

 Here you can admire a masterpiece of Annibale Caracci, famous painter of the Italian renaissancerenaissance. The picture was taken after the restoration of the painting.

Restoration of a Greek Ikon, showing a Deesis, below three Saints in the Clouds (the one in the center is St.Nicholas), and in the Lower Part St. Georges and St. Dimitri. The Ikon is Signed and Dated to the Bottom in the Center, 1817

This restoration was asked by an ikon collector who was horrified by the discovery of this massacre, committed by a scrupulous, greedy dealer. He sew this ikon in five panels for fraudulent reasons.

This particular restoration, is more difficult than for a single work. Not only you have to do all the normal steps of the restoration such as consolidation, cleaning filling of losses, retouching and varnishing of all five pieces. You also have to reglue the five fragments together with the special point of compensating the thickness loss due to the sawing. This was done through inserting small blades of wood.

This restoration has without doubt saved a signed and dated ikon from its certain ‘dissemination’.

Restoration of a Landskape painting, “La dent dOche, view of Saint Peter”, Oil on Canvas, dated and signed to the bottom left A.Hambourg 1928, 54 x 64.5 cm

The motivation for this restoration was due to the documentation for the ‘complete catalog of André Hambourg’.

The painting arrived in quite bad condition. It was very dirty, covered by a discolored yellowed varnish, had six minor holes and abrasions, and its surface was entierly covered by blooming, which gave it a milky appearance. The canvas was extremely dry, deformed and had no more tension. The tacking edges were eaten away by the rusting nails. The original fix stretcher bore a signature and was therefore reused.

The change of ‘before and after’ restoration was certainly worth the effort!

Restoration of a Family Portrait, France, end of XVIIth c.

The motivation for this restoration came by the changement of ownership. The new owner of this magnificient portrait is no other than a direct descendant of the portrait.

The painting arrived quite “run down” in the studio. It was filthy, covered by a yellowed varnish, had some holes and abrasions, the tacking edges were worn through, the canvas was deformed and had no more tension and the stretcher of the 19^th c. was infested by worms and broken.

View of  a detail during the restauration.

After consilidation of the paint layer and the canvas. Mounting of new tacking edges and fixing on a new stretcher. The first cleaning windows were tried. The cleaning alone modifies the colour scheme dramaticaly !