The Salvage Job - Part 1

this video is brought to you by magellan tv a new documentary streaming service founded by filmmakers whose mission is to tell great stories that have defined the human experience you know when a seafaring ship sinks it's natural to believe that it's a total loss i mean the cargo and the vessel now sit at the bottom of the ocean yet the ship can be raised it can be cut apart it can be recycled it can be salvaged now when a painting is so thoroughly damaged by an unskilled hand we must reassess what's possible and also start thinking of salvage this painting a copy of van dyke's famous portrait of the musician hendrix liberty well it's weathered a tempest or two after some structural damage a tear or puncture perhaps it was the subject of a rather aggressive conservation including a wholesale skinning of the painting that is the topmost layer of paint was removed and if we compare this painting to the original well it's clear just how much damage this has suffered just how many elements are missing from this copy sure there are aspects of the painting that are still brilliant like the hand which make us wonder if maybe just maybe this painting is from van dyke's studio but the face well all of the glazes and some of the structure well that's gone as well and that's to say nothing of the coat and background which have been reduced to well a crude under painting or sketch at best and unfortunately this damage is irreversible there is no way to go back and return what was lost this is permanent aside from the herculean effort it would take to recreate this painting any attempt at doing so would effectively push the conservator into a gray zone of ethics for the repainting recreation or forgery of the original is something that we cannot do and no matter how good we are at retouching van dyke we are not so we have to start thinking about what is possible instead of what isn't so we must find a way of returning value to this painting economic artistic or just emotional to enable it to have an existence going forward there must be some way to thread this needle while avoiding the trap of excessive work and interpretive collaboration yet still affecting positive change and well salvaging this once beautiful painting [Music] van dyke was so popular during his lifetime that his paintings were coveted all over the world which led them to be copied by tons of other artists including a contemporary friend and master in his own right peter paul rubens a man whose paintings subject matter and life itself was well larger than life not only was rubens a masterful painter he was an expert in architecture art history a collector of artwork and even a diplomat brokering peace between england and spain during the 80 years war but his paintings are really what we focus on most they're huge the figures are fleshy and raw intense they are quintessentially baroque and that seems to have led them to fall out of favor with our modern sensibilities but if we take a closer look at his work and understand what he was trying to achieve well maybe we can see them in a different light and gain a better appreciation and deeper understanding of peter paul rubens all of this and more will be explored in the documentary rubens an extra-large story on magellan tv magellan tv is a new type of streaming service created by filmmakers to showcase some of the most interesting documentaries around with a catalog of over 3 000 titles from which to choose there is surely something that will capture your imagination from history to science outer space the natural world and even the arts magellan has something for you you can watch on just about any device your phone tablet computer or even stream to your tv and the best part it's completely ad-free head over to try.magellantv.comrestoration or click the link in the description below to take advantage of this offer and defy your expectations because this painting was subject to numerous attempts at conservation the materials and techniques that were used are unknown and so it is prudent to take some precautionary measures to protect the painting a facing of japanese paper washi cozo and fish gelatin will ensure that no paint is lost during the removal of the linings and that the paint layer itself is protected during handling this fish gelatin comes in dried sheets and can easily be dissolved in warm water this is a food grade fish gelatin so if one so desired one could eat said gelatin though one would certainly need a mint afterwards allowing the fish gelatin to dissolve slowly under low heat is absolutely critical to not burning it too high of a heat and it will scorch and lose its adhesion properties too low and it simply won't dissolve into the water timely now once the fish gelatin has fully dissolved into the water and is mixed it can be removed and taken over to the painting this fist gelatin has an open time of approximately 10 or 15 minutes which is plenty of time to apply it to the face of the painting with a bristle brush conveniently labeled fish glue in this case i'm using small sections of washi cozo as opposed to a large sheet and i've chosen to use small sections because this is a fairly big painting and it's going to take some time to cover everything now that seems contrary to what would be obvious big painting big sheet easier and faster unfortunately sometimes using a big sheet results in air bubbles in the facing and to remove those air bubbles requires the over working of the paper which can result in its damage it simply falls apart so by using smaller sheets i have a little bit more control and i can ensure that any air bubbles are removed without running risk of damaging or weakening this paper because after all the strength of this paper is what we are after and if it were damaged or weakened i would have to add another layer or simply start over because this painting is completely free of impasto it is smooth that is there is no textural buildup of paint or brushwork or anything else the application of the adhesive and the paper is relatively easy it goes on smooth it can be brushed out and it can ensure that the bond is very strong were there impasto a different approach might be required because air bubbles signify the lack of adhesion and that means that the paint layer isn't stabilized and protected and of course there is a lot of work that is going to happen to this painting and making sure that it is absolutely stabilized and protected is the whole point of the facing so one by one these squares will be applied the painting will slowly be covered and we will say goodbye to this image because it will be a long time before we see it again in fact by the time this facing is ready to come off i will have almost forgotten what this painting looks like as the adhesive dries it becomes a little bit more opaque and the image completely disappears with that adhesive and facing dry i can now start removing the painting from the stretcher i'll use two foam blocks on the floor just to make sure that the edge of the painting isn't resting on the concrete and that there is a little cushioning i could use my feet but i'd like to keep my shoes clean today removing the painting from the stretcher isn't terribly complicated it's just a matter of pulling out all of the nails and tacks that were used to secure this lining canvas to the wooden support really the only difficult thing is that the entire edge of the painting was wrapped with a water-based paper tape which was common in yesteryear but we have now since eschewed because it serves no purpose and is just excessive before i remove the canvas i'm going to go ahead and make sure that i get any errant tacks that i might have missed on the first go-round this will ensure that the canvas doesn't get hung up and no creases or crinkles or folds happen when i try to remove it removing the stretcher is as simple as lifting it off and placing it aside it will need to be cleaned and the excess paper tape and tacks will also have to be removed but right now the focus is on the canvas and i mentioned that this lining needs to be removed and so i'm starting to peel back the lining and i find something rather interesting underneath the canvas lining is a layer of heavy paper and underneath that paper is another layer of canvas and then we have the original canvas this is quite odd there doesn't seem to be any reason for two layers of canvas and a paper inter-leaf i suppose it could make the lining stiffer but a properly a pried lining will be stiff enough and a second lining isn't necessary the good news is that the top layer of canvas peels off relatively easily indicating that the adhesive was well not that adhesive now removing the second lining is a little bit more difficult this adhesive bond was fairly strong and it will take some elbow grease to get it off i'm choosing not to wet the canvas because i don't want to introduce any moisture if i don't need to and i think i can pull back this lining canvas and get it off without any water it is going a little bit slower than i had hoped and it is quite tough this old rabbit skin glue really did bond well so in order to facilitate an easier time for myself i'm going to clamp the edge of the painting where the canvas has been removed to the table this will hold the original canvas down and allow me to go to the other side of the table and pull the canvas off without running the risk that the original painting folds or creases or deforms also having two hands pulling as opposed to one hand holding the canvas and the other hand pulling will allow me to work faster and it's just much much easier so with the painting secured i can begin really removing this lining canvas now when i said easier i meant easier but not easy because this is still really really hard work it's taking a lot of energy a lot of effort to pull this off and i know what you're thinking why don't you just wet it and peel it right off and i could but then i would have to deal with the consequences of adding moisture to this canvas which is something that i don't want to do yet adding moisture to a canvas introduces movement and irregularity and an element of the unknown we just don't know what's going to happen when a canvas gets wet and so if we can avoid adding moisture it is always better and my efforts my scraped knuckles and sore hands are just par for the course if the painting survives then it's a sacrifice i'm willing to make finally with the second lining canvas fully removed sore hands and a few choice words later i can clean off the residue but as i come to the corner i notice something there appears to be a third lining canvas because of course there is and so when i thought i was done i can start all over again removing this lining canvas from what i think what i hope is the original the bond on this canvas is also rapid skin glue and it has deteriorated over time so the canvas can be removed with much more ease than the last one unfortunately this canvas is really brittle so it does tear in some spots requiring me to use some tools ultimately however i think i can get this one off again without adding moisture had i used water on the first and second lining canvas i might have reactivated the adhesive on this lining canvas and maybe not have been able to get this canvas off of the original in time to prevent any distortions now as i remove this lining canvas the final lining canvas i can start to see the original and all of the repairs that were executed on it and this is really what i was looking for a clue as to what was done i can see major paper patches applied to the back indicating that the tears or damage that we could see on the face really did extend to the structural canvas sometimes lots of retouching on the face of a painting doesn't indicate any structural failures but in this case it seems that that is precisely what has happened major damage to the structure of the canvas and of course major damage to the image so finally all three lining canvases removed it is now at this stage with all of the lining canvases removed that i can begin the process of removing the old adhesive from the original canvas this is where i will introduce moisture and i've chosen to use a synthetic clay water gel this is simply a powder mixed with water that turns water into a gel i could use regular water and paint it on but there's just simply less control and more saturation and that's something that i actually don't want the gel provides enough moisture that the rabbit skin glue will swell but it doesn't provide too much that the canvas will become wet or saturated again i'm looking to avoid any distortions so once the gel has sat and the rabbit skin glue has swollen i can take a scalpel and i can begin scraping it off and in this case i'm using a fairly dull scalpel one from a previous project i do save them after i've used them because they can come in handy using a brand new or very sharp scalpel would be counter to what i am trying to achieve here i don't want to run the risk that i cut or gouge or damage the original canvas because it is incredibly old and brittle i just want an edge that is sharp enough to scrape off the swollen gel and soft enough or smooth enough to glide over the surface without catching now as i remove all of this i notice well what was a seal on the back of the painting at some point this painting may have been part of a collection and a wax seal was added to denote that unfortunately it was completely removed during the lining process and now all of that provenance now that's gone as i come to the areas of paper i notice that there are one two sometimes even three layers of paper that have been adhered to the canvas all with rabbit skin glue it's a little bit more work to get each of these layers off because the paper just disintegrates and it gums up the edge of the scalpel but i have time and there is no way to rush this so by working slowly on the edge and letting the scalpel do the majority of the work much like a drill bit or a saw blade does i can get all of this paper off and here with the paper removed is where we start to get our first glimpse at the true nature of the damage i can see some tears some really big holes where the canvas is absolutely missing things that i'm going to have to address later on but first i have to clean up my table i have been scraping for nearly a week on and off an hour here an hour there because it's just too intense to scrape for an entire day but what i have removed is quite impressive i would say that there is at least two pounds of rabbit skin glue and paper that have been removed from the back of this painting though the scraping process was successful there is still a thin film of rabbit skin glue on the painting i don't want to use the gel again because it's not going to be as efficient as using an enzyme cleaner this enzyme cleaner brushed onto the canvas will slowly break down the proteins in the rabbit skin glue and then i can take a old toothbrush and gently go over the surface and loosen up all of that old rabbit skin glue once it's sufficiently loose i can come back with a cotton ball and lift it off of the surface one might ask why this is essential and really i want to get rid of all of the old materials that have started to deteriorate not only because they will continue to deteriorate but because they can get in the way of the materials that i'm going to use when i treat this painting later on and i want to make sure that i'm dealing with the canvas itself not a layer of adhesive when i bond this canvas to a new lining so working in sections i will slowly remove all of this residue making sure that the canvas is all that remains nothing exciting here just more removal of glue which seems to be a major theme in the conservator's life now with all of the adhesive removed i can transfer the painting to the hot table where i'm going to execute a treatment that has two functions one just to ensure that there are no remnants of adhesive left and two to relax and flatten the painting now though i try it is inevitable that whenever a painting has a lining removed an old rabbit skin glue removed there is some distortion of the original canvas and doing this treatment will ensure that the canvas is flat and smooth and that any little remnants of rabbit skin glue are sucked down and out into this blotter paper so using the large hot table is a real benefit here because this painting is just a little bit too large for the small hot table in addition the larger hot table heats up faster and has a higher vacuum pressure that can be applied so it will mean that the painting is exposed to moisture for a shorter duration and has a higher pressure applied to the surface ensuring that it gets absolutely flat i'll lay the painting down and make sure it's perfectly centered on the blotter paper and then i'll cover it with the mylar film i'll use tape to secure the mylar to the table ensuring that it is complete and that there are no voids or gaps where the air could escape and compromise the vacuum that i want to create once it's secured down to the table i can connect the hoses through the mylar and these will extract the air allowing the pressure to be applied the pump goes on and the air is sucked out through the hoses the pressure is even and well distributed ensuring that we get a nice smooth painting but we can see that some of the areas where the fill-in was applied are bulging which means that i'm going to have to remove those later on because the structural damage on this painting was significant to say the least it's going to require a lining and because this painting is old the canvas is really fragile i'm not taking any chances i'm going to be doing an interleaved lining and the first step is to apply this flat spun nylon gossamer to the back of the painting with an adhesive this is a step that i take because it allows a little bit more adhesive to be used this nylon gossamer though very thin does hold a little bit more adhesive it's also incredibly strong so it will allow me to handle the painting with a little bit more ease before the lining is applied and that's something that i want because this canvas is so incredibly brittle in addition a piece of pet film will be coated front and back for the lining before the lining is executed i want to remove the washi cozo facing it has served its purpose and protected and stabilized the paint layer during the removal of the old linings but now it has no purpose and will just get in the way and if i leave it on it may be more difficult to remove later on i'm using a brush with some warm water and i'm going to apply it to the entire painting and allow that fish gelatin to swell and become soft as easily as the facing goes on unfortunately it does not come off in the same manner the washi cozo when fully saturated starts to dissolve and comes off in little pieces as opposed to large squares it is unfortunate but it is really not a problem though it takes more time i have time and the painting isn't in any rush so using a flat palette knife i will slowly move across the painting and just peel back all of these layers i'm not terribly concerned about any of the wash i'm not terribly concerned about any remnants of fish gelatin adhered to the face of the painting i'll remove that once i've gotten all of this paper off of the painting it is interesting having spent so many hours so many weeks working on the painting without seeing the front to see it again i had forgotten what it had looked like truth be told i had forgotten how much work was ahead of me and as i remove all of this facing i am realizing now that though i thought i was halfway done the real work is just beginning but that's okay i have the time and i like the challenge we are here to salvage this painting after all and now we have come to the cleaning process i've made tests and determined that there is not a heavy layer of surface grime but that there is a layer of discolored varnish so using the appropriate solvents which again i have tested to ensure that they do not cause harm to the painting i'm using a rolled cotton swab effectively a larger version of what we use at home to remove this varnish as the varnish comes in contact with the solvent it softens it swells it dissolves and breaks down and i can use the swab to lift it off of the canvas i use a slight rolling motion as i move the swab across the canvas to lift up that old varnish in addition some of the over painting is coming off with the varnish a welcome relief for that it's often not the case and more drastic measures are required to remove old retouching with just this small section of the hand cleaned we can see just how much of a difference there is the old varnish has deteriorated over time as is common with natural resin varnishes like dimar or mastic and shellac the uv light turns them yellow they become brittle sometimes cloudy and cracked and when we remove them we can start to see what the artist really wanted us to see the subtle delicate variations of color the smooth blending of the paint really the artist's mastery all of that is concealed by old dirty varnish and just working on this hand i can tell that at once this painting was really stunning if we look at the painting under uv light as sections of varnish are removed we can see that the neon green haze that is the old varnish comes off and the painting is revealed we can also see lots and lots of over painting excessive retouching that well i'm gonna have to remove as well well this painting was profoundly damaged not only through the tearing of the canvas and paint loss but probably with the old conservation attempts as well there are still some glimmers of really beautiful painting here and the whole goal of this project is to salvage what can be saved to bring back what may remain of the original painting to undo all this bad work and try to make it so that we can appreciate the talent of this artist now cleaning the face was an area that i was both excited and very nervous about the face does not look good now and there is a ton of overpaint it is essential that i remove that overpaint because it's discolored it's incomplete it's sloppy and i can do better unfortunately removing all of this over paint reveals more damage much much more than i had hoped anytime i work on a painting that's been previously conserved poorly i always hope that what i find is good positive but usually it's not usually i find the overpaint has been excessive to hide the extent of the damage and this painting is no exception the bottom section of both eyes is completely missing the cheek is completely missing much of the nose you guessed it completely missing the lips are there but they have been abraded and skinned so that they are well just a shadow of what they once were but removing all of this is necessary and it at least will give me a chance to put the painting back together in a way that is more appropriate and more sensitive to the artist and again under uv light we can see these dark areas of purple all over painting that needs to be removed the removal process is going to be multi-staged because some of this over painting is water-based it's a gouache or a tempera or a watercolor and so i need to use a water-based medium to remove it in addition there is a lot of fill-in medium on this painting in fact there is fill-in medium on top of fill-in medium on top of retouching on top of fill-in medium on top of retouching on top of fill-in medium so on and so forth there are so many layers to this it is almost a wedding cake so with all of that first layer removed i can now approach the second layer and this requires a chemical solvent to soften up the fill in medium which appears to be white lead paint and some of the overpaint i apply this and i let it sit and soften up the white lead and again using the scalpel just gliding over the surface and picking up the softened white lead we can see how much overpaint there was and see how many different layers of fill in medium and overpaint there were in addition we can see a little bit more of the original a lot of the painting was simply covered up during the last retouching which is good it means that the damage actually might be less than i had thought if we remember back to the treatment on the hot table i noted that there were some bulges that i would have to address this was old fill-in medium that was removed when i removed all of the old retouching unfortunately there was no canvas there it had been cut clean so i need to create an inlay to take its place i'll trace the area onto a piece of canvas i will cut it to fit and lay it down this will ensure that i have a nice stable surface onto which i can apply fill in medium and execute my retouching and with that we have come to the conclusion of part one we can see how the painting arrived in the studio and through a lot of removal we can see where the painting is now ready for lining and retouching you

Channel: Baumgartner Restoration

Views: 578,047

Rating: 4.9673018 out of 5

Keywords: Baumgartner, Julian, restoration, ASMR, paintings, cleaning, scraping, repair, Art, fine art, conservation, painting restoration, old art, painting, painting conservation, oil painting, new again, restore

Id: HA7LgWoZDPc

Length: 32min 6sec (1926 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 21 2021