Restoring Henriette after escaping Nazi Germany , #paintingrestoration #artrestoration

hi everybody Welcome along to another video um thanks for all your comments and uh likes the last few that we've been doing um I hope you enjoyed Harriet and the final progress of her so today I've got a different painting in it's a lovely little portrait um it's a private clients painting and I've had it sat on the bench for a while just waiting to get onto it it doesn't need too much work doing to it but uh hopefully like me I think you'll really enjoy seeing the process with this one so yeah let me introduce you to Henriette hold on let me just show you what we've got so here she is this is a portrait of Henrietta Hyman painted by Isador popper famous for painting Henrik Hein the German poet the 19th century so it's a mid 19th century portrait it's been realigned there's a very discolored varnish on there there's some damage there's damage to the right hand side there that you can see these are my small test windows that I've done just to see that it will clean and what we'll remove um it has been cleaned in the past you can see that a lot of a house dress coloring the blue has been removed um but I just think it's a lovely little painting such skill to capture that likeness the surface is quite crazed there's that damage again and then what's interesting here we've got some pieces of German newspaper on the tacking Edge that was applied at some point before it was realigned and then we've got a million and one flat tax all the way around some more newspaper there um but yeah so this was brought over from Germany at the start of World War II and has been in the family of the clients ever since and it's in for a clean and a restore to that damage I'm not going to remove it from the stretch because the realign job is good and even though there are stretcher bar marks some crackler I feel like it's pretty unnecessary so I'm just going to tackle that dent individually here you can see the the impact and then that matte paint has been um over painted at some point just to hide that it's a slightly different color so there are sections of all the paint on this painting there's varnish that's kind of perished but you can see the difference when I clean it's going to shine through um it's going to make quite a difference when that varnish is removed and then once cleaned I'll be looking at um retouching where necessary and taking um some steps to replace the missing sections and so here's the portrait again I thought I was a rip at first but it's actually an earring which looks quite decadent so this sitter is the artist's sister-in-law it seems that he um here we go yeah so painted by popper but the portrait is of the artist's sister-in-law it seems the artist never painted his wife but painted the sister so read into that what you will here's the back of the canvas I'm just trying to show that dent on the reverse and I'm going to tackle that now with a little bit of um well a very light Touch of warm water so I've got warm water on a cloth here so I've boiled the kettle let it cure a little bit and I'm just gently dabbing dabbing the dent not applying too much water at all it's just the damp cloth on the surface just to relax that area there so once the water's been applied um I'll be then putting it under a bit of pressure with some weights but this is just gently applying a little bit of moisture to that area before I do put it under the weight foreign [Music] you can spray water on with a fine Mister but I just like the control that I get by using the rag and I know that I'm not adding excess amounts to that canvas so just applying a little bit of the melon X on the bottom there to stop anything sticking to the surface and then again melonex just to create a sandwich and then I'm going to put these boards on just as a bit of weight um just cut to press that dent and reverse it now so the moisture the heated moisture will be doing its thing it will be kind of tightening the canvas weave at the back but these boards and then a large weight will just add extra pressure to it without having to use the vacuum table and I'll probably leave that for 20 minutes or something half an hour maybe a little bit longer I'll check it sporadically just to make sure that nothing untoward is happening um but then once I know that it's had a good press and it's dried I'll remove everything and then I'll be able to see um the repair thank you [Music] probably more noticeable from the rear but that canvas weave at the back there completely flat pulled super tight so if there is anything to address on the front now it might just be a small bit where there's there was initial paint loss there but the canvas is flat there's no undulating dents and then I can address that later with some filler and retouching so I'm with the clean I've increased the strength of my solution from when I first started doing my tests because it was taking quite a while to get through that varnish but this mixture now is just going to gently soften the varnish layer and I'm just going to dousing it a little bit there with my swab and letting it start to work and then once the solvents start attacking that varnish layer I'll be able to just remove that and reveal the colors underneath [Music] foreign [Music] so as you can see the color is coming through nice and white now and then that lovely blue color is coming through as well um it's just a shame that it has been cleaned quite aggressively in the past and a lot of that blue pigment has been lost but there's enough on there to give the fabric the color and an indication of what was there um I can't work out if this is just like a simple house dress or house jacket um it does look quite reserved but it's a lovely color but I can just see elements on the shoulder the left shoulder and a sleeve where it's got like Stripes to it like a pinstripe so that is something that when I do come to retouch the painting I'll be looking at maybe replacing some of that back but just being sensitive that I'm not adding big huge suedes of color on top of that outfit [Music] oh [Music] [Music] okay and onto her face you can see the varnish the extensive crackler across there um I think it may have been heat wax relined at some point because it does seem to have perished that varnish layer so again I'm just gently going to soften the varnish let the solvents do the work and just reveal that phase I just think it's so beautiful the sitter the way he's captured those eyes is just a beautifully rendered portrait um really really nicely done and then you'll see soon the true colors start to appear [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] once that varnish is removing you can see the over painted areas the varnish is sticking to this a little bit and attaching itself to that oil paint are the old paints attached to the varnish rather but as I clean they'll reduce and we'll just be left without a filler or damage underneath thank you so as you can see now as that discolored varnish is removed I'm getting all the nice pink tones of the face you can see the crackler in the paint layer is holding some of that varnish residue but as I clean they will reduce as well so they won't be so visible and I can also see now some areas where there has been historical retouching or marks that have been retouched or painted over they're becoming a little bit more apparent now as the solvent mixture I'm using isn't removing the paints just to Varnish [Music] so yeah there's an area on a chin and a cheek this is uh retouchings that have discolored over time it's a little bit of an area on the neck there that needs a dressing and yeah that's like some kind of abrasion on the chin and then above her right eyebrow there's one or two marks as well that either paint loss that's been touched over with oils and has darkened over time so I'll be looking at removing those and if I can't remove them I'll be looking at retouching over the top foreign [Music] foreign [Music] socket so again as I'm cleaning I'm checking that swab making sure it's only the varnish that's removing or any over paint but spending time with her and seeing how she's been painted you get to see the areas of damage and the areas that we'll need addressing as we go along but um those eyes are so engaging and just the tones of the skin just a really nice portrait really well done foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] just looking at that earring or those earrings are quite elegant drop earrings looks like there's a jewel in there or a couple of jewels her dress is just so plain and then she's being painted by her sister's husband I don't know I just think why why those aliens they don't seem to match with that like playing dress but I don't know just daydreaming a little bit here foreign [Music] area now as I'm cleaning at first instance it just looks dark brown if you look at the left of the the film there it's just dark brown but actually there's some really nice tones coming through it's kind of a yellowy oakery light brown light area that's coming through um so yeah and then this is the impact that white was initially realigned I imagine it's probably about two and a half inch tear that has been glued together so I'll be looking at filling that once it's been cleaned then you can still see that other impact that I've managed to flatten out but I think the way it's been re-lined and the um the way it's been filled is still a little bit uneven there so I'll be looking at probably filling that to match the level of the paint surface got some yeah lovely colors coming through that background it really is quite a warm portrait [Music] thank you [Music] and here on the left hand side of the painting we can see some example of some filled areas before so again the background extensively over painted with the brown or burnt somber pigment but that's removing now it is it is revealing some areas to be addressed but at least that over paint has come off so here she is fully cleaned background cleaned face cleaned all varnished removed um wonderful that hair is amazing look at the hair the way it's just kind of gently brushing the side of our forehead is a beautiful portrait um but unfortunately that's all we've got time for this week so please tune in next week for part two okay guys thank you very much [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Bloomfield Art Restoration

Views: 18,436

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Id: yu3NRWwcxYY

Length: 17min 54sec (1074 seconds)

Published: Sun May 28 2023