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A ship Captain paints his world
Painting Conservation
Painting Conservation Department
This was painted in approximately 1900, by our client’s husband’s Swedish great grandfather. He was a ship captain, and was lost at sea in 1910.
The painting had a dark layer of discolored varnish and soot obscuring the surface, and there were some losses in the paint layer, and scratches. The restoration process included a cleaning with a combination of solvent solutions: an isolating varnish of Paraloid B-67 with 2% Tinuvin 292 hindered-amine light stabilizer was brushed over the surface; losses were filled with Flügger and inpainted with pigment ground in Laropal A81 aldehyde resin. A final coat of Paraloid B-67 with Tinuvin was applied.
Most oil paintings have a layer of varnish over their surface which acts as a protector. It also saturates the colors and imparts a glossy finish. Over the years, soot and pollutants absorb into the varnish layer. Old organic varnishes also darken and yellow with age. With time, the varnish has done its job of protecting the paint layer and is ready to be replaced. Cleaning a painting is often the careful removal of this dark varnish. Varnish is a resin and can be dissolved with solutions that do not affect the oil paint underneath, although of course tests must always be performed to determine just the right solution that will be both effective and safe. Once the old varnish is off and the original colors are visible again, a new conservation grade varnish is applied to continue to protect the paint surface for the future.