Panning for Gold by Robert Swaim, 1892
Condition Report
Image - Before Treatment
This oil painting has reportedly been through a fire, and had evidence of tiny pockmarks and blistering in isolated areas throughout the composition from the fire’s heat. Chemical abrasion and skinning (thinning of the painted surface) were identified as the result of the painting being previously over-cleaned. An artist’s signature - “R. Swaim” in the lower left corner shows a rectangular outline identifying that the signature was salvaged from another part of the painting and patched into the current painting’s configuration. There are remnants of old discolored varnish, dirt, and soot on the painting’s surface that were not completely removed during the post-fire conservation effort. In addition to the remnants of old dirt, varnish, and thick brush coating of natural resin varnish previously applied by a restorer; the painting was covered with a layer of red-brown overpaint to hide the damage caused by the fire. Close inspection of the painting found that in addition to the blistered paint, the paint layer was also cracked and tenting. One consolation from the fire was that the paint layer did not seem to have been scorched/burned/or permanently darkened. Along with the tenting and flaking paint issues, the canvas was found to be in an extremely weakened state and should be lined onto a secondary canvas support for future stability.
You can view the original painting before the fire here
During Cleaning
After Treatment
Cleaning
Image - Fully cleaned
The most satisfying part of the conservation process was when we saw the stark difference from dirty and discolored to cleaned. This was not an immediate result however. We needed to clean large stained areas up to 3-5 times in order to get all residual soot out of the paint’s structure.
After cleaning, the painting was carefully removed from its stretcher to clean the back of the canvas and relax the tacking edges into plane. All of the blistering and tented paint was consolidated, infused, and lined on our Vacuum Hot Table using an appropriate adhesive.
The Signature
Image - Before Treatment
The signature shows heavy dark varnish and overpaint, which covers the line where the signature was cut and placed in the viewer’s lower left corner of the painting. Note that the lower tail of the “9” in the date “- 91” is not visible in the before photograph. During our treatment process the signature block was detached again and we asked the art curator representing the owner’s institution how they wanted this issue dealt with.
(continued)
The collective conclusion was to cut and discard a ¼” strip of original painted canvas above the signature and then reattach the signature to the painting. This in essence slid the already detached signature block upwards allowing the tail of the “9” to now be a visible part of the painting. Cutting away any portion of a painting is usually not ethical, but in this case since it had already been done by the previous restorer, it was felt that it needed to be part of this painting. It was far more important to have a complete signature and date visible than an issue of loosing a small strip of background paint in a section of painting that had already been compromised.
Image - After Treatment
