‘At the First Touch of Winter, Summer Fades Away’ by Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1897) from Gallery Oldham, Greater Manchester. Oil on canvas. This painting was conserved following a flood at Gallery Oldham which occurred during ‘The Beast from the East’ in March 2018.
Immediately following the flood at Gallery Oldham, a team of paintings conservators from our studio travelled to the gallery to carry out emergency ‘first aid work’ on the paintings. This included adhering thin strips of tissue to any flaking paint layers. These strips of ‘facing tissue’ would ensure that the loose paint flakes were not lost as the painting began to dry out. In this photograph, you can see the amount of ‘facing tissue’ applied, which gives an indication of the amout of damage suffered by the paint layers.
When the painting arrived at the conservation studio, it had thick dirt layers including debris which had been washed down the front of the painting in the flood waters. The varnish layers had been blanched and crazed (developed fine fissures) as a result of contact with the flood waters. The canvas had also shrunk where water had ran down the reverse. This left the ground and paint layers with insufficient space to lie flat on the canvas, and they were pushed up into a ‘tented’ position and were only very loosely attached to the underlying canvas. In many cases, the ‘facing tissue’ was the only thing actually holding the flakes of paint in place.
©Gallery Oldham/Lucy Critchlow
This photograph has been taken in raking light, whereby the light source glances across to emphasis the surface topography of the painting. Several canvas undulation distortions are now visible.
©Gallery Oldham/Lucy Critchlow
In order to consolidate (re-adhere) the loose paint flakes back down onto the canvas, it was first necessary to remove the canvas from its stretcher and gently re-stretch it onto a wooden loom system following a method known as pre-stretching. Conservation adhesive could then be painted into cracks in the paint layers. Through capillary action, the adhesive would flow between the paint layers and the re-stretched canvas. A thermostatically controlled spatula was then used to lay each individual loose flake of paint back down onto the canvas.
©Gallery Oldham/Pia Dowse
In this detail photograph, you can see the extent of the flood damaged paint layers. You can really see the ‘tented’ effect, whereby the paint layers have been pushed up into a ‘tented’ position following shrinkage of the underlying canvas support.
©Gallery Oldham/Lucy Critchlow
This detail photograph was taken after the intricate and time consuming pre-stretching and consolidation treatment.
©Gallery Oldham/Lucy Critchlow
Once the paint layers were consolidated and stabilised, it was possible to remove the water damaged, blanched and crazed varnish layers. This treatment was carried out using cotton wool swabs and a bespoke solvent mixture.
After the painting had been cleaned, an isolating varnish was applied to protect the original paint layers. The small paint and ground layer losses associated with the flood were then filled with a hand-made 'putty' comprising an inert filler mixed with a synthetic binder. Once dry, the fillings were textured to imitate the appearance of the surrounding original paint.
©Gallery Oldham/Lucy Critchlow
The filled losses were retouched with dry pigments bound with a synthetic resin.
The painting was then sprayed with several layers of a stable synthetic resin varnish.
©Gallery Oldham/Lucy Critchlow
When the painting arrived at the conservation studio, the reverse of the canvas was dusty and dirty and the wooden expansion keys were not seucred to the stretcher.
©Gallery Oldham/Lucy Critchlow
This photograph shows the extent of canvas undulations and ripples, most of which had been caused by contact with the flood waters.
©Gallery Oldham/Lucy Critchlow
The painting was removed from its stretcher and several stages of structural treatment were carried out in order to ease the distortions and undulations out of the canvas. As described earlier, the canvas was then pre-stretched on a wooden loom so that the flaking and tented ground and paint layers could be re-adhered back down onto the canvas.
In order to support and stabilise the weakened canvas, it was decided to adhere it to a secondary support canvas in a process known as lining. The painting was lined onto a polyester sailcloth lining canvas adhered with a synthetic heat-seal adhesive.
The existing stretcher was then refurbished and the lined painting was re-attached to it using canvas pliers and copper tacks.
©Gallery Oldham/Lucy Critchlow