Dasha, gotta say - those are your parents paintings, not yours. As much as I'm sure your parents love you - there is a point when ... it's not your stuff to mess around with. It just isn't.
It would be different if they'd said to you, Dasha, darling, what do you think about cleaning those paintings.
ummm. i know. that's why i haven't done a thing yet. and believe me, i did want to just grab a bucket, sponge and soap, but i desisted. i'm not cleaning them behind their backs, they are fully aware of my intentions and are keeping a watchful eye on me. all ok on the parents front.
Can anyone tell me the history or connection of a painter called Van Bols( very old ). I have a large oil painting of a ship. The signature is Van Bols. It is very dirty and needs cleaning. The work is very detailed and is in quite story water. The painting is somehting like 24 x 48 inches long. It appears very old. Can anyone help either with how to clean it or anyhistry.
Cleaning Paintings
If an oil painting is only 20 - 30 years old; heck let's say up to 50 years old, it really shouldn't be cleaned. The paint isn't stable enough, and with any luck there is a surface varnish to protect the paint itself. Cleaning any painting without training is a risky business. I know a collector who proudly told me that he'd paid $15 to have his painting cleaned. That's great but he lost the $8-$10 thousand dollar value of the painting as it had been ruined. Anyone cleaning his/her own painting is risking a great deal. Steam cleaning a painting is out of the question - that is if you want to keep the paint on the canvas.
Odd how people will part with so much money to fix their cars and so little to have a work of art properly treated.
I have about 12 paintings that were done by "Rockport" artists (Ma coastline area), and these paintings were all done from the 50's to the late 70"s. They were all hung in a bar(we got em all at an auction when the barroom was being torn down -everyone thought that the paintings were prints because they were so dirty and scuzzy) They acquired an amazing amount of smoke and grime buildup. The artists used a copal varnish and when we had em restored, the conservators used a series of enzymes to carefully abrade the copalso the cleaning of the painting could be done correctly. The work was tedious and we could only afford to do one or two at a time over 10 or so years.
A lot of aging can occur in less than 25 years and , if a painting is kept in a less than ideal environment, it can craze, get molds, crack, and discolor by chemical bonding of the nanoparticles of dirt, smoke, and atmospheric crap.
Do your parents smoke? cigarette smoke is one of the most hazardous environments for oils, since the smoke is essentially a tar-like substance that will bind to the surface of an oil painting and will darken and dull the color in a relatively short time.
IF you have anyone with an account to ASKart.com, they can look at the market history of the artist and you must determine whether the paintings warrant the conservators touch. If they are worth thousands, an investment of 100 to 1500 to get the job done right, can add a lot more value to an alredy valuable work. It wont, however, add the difference to an Over-market value, since the auction market often dissapoints the consigner.
Some museums in the US have a program that actually pays the owners for works of art that the museum may want in their collections. They will allow the owners to continue owning the painting (under certain ownership provisos) and , upon their passing, the museum inherits the works. This would allow your parents some additional income , and if the tax laws are anything like the US, there are benefits to this deferred trade .
My folks had a sizable collection of works by a Pennsylvania artist named Ben AUstrian. His work was charming , in that he almost always painted chicks and chickens with chicks. He did hundreds. His work became valuable, and my folks sold them at auction because the tax laws were not based upon market valuation , but were based upon "some whacko cost of material" basis. Things have changed in the US since that time.
I guess my entire point is that expensive and proper restoration should probably only precede de-accession of the paintings, since oil paintings are good time capsules, they will only get dimmer and then can be restored anytime. They usually wont deteriorate like watercolors or old guache or encaustic paintings.
NO rush for conservation!
Good morning, Farmerman. Your post is really excellent. When my wife and I worked at the National Collection of Fine Arts (now the Museum of American Art) in Washington, I used to spend a lot of my free time watching the conservators "clean" older paintings that were going to be in upcoming exhibitions there at the Smithsonian--or at another museum as a loan. I was fascinated by how PAINSTAKING the process is--and the amount of chemistry (sometimes, organic) involved in finding out just what pigments the artists had used, and what new cleaners were not going to injure them. A well (usually meaning "next to unnoticeably") conserved work CAN be beautiful--mostly because you know what it looked like in the "before" state.
I completely agree with you that there is a LOT to be lost through amateur conservation. If the painting is worth conserving, it deserves a professional conservator. Frames are worth mentioning, too. Really good frames clean up and repair more easily than paintings--but their valuable finish can be destroyed by do-it-yourself home restoration.
Several conservators have told me that, if I've acquired an older painting that has no market value (this says something about larger-art-world POV!), and the grime on its face is light, I could try cotton balls moistened with a dilute solution of Ivory Snow and distilled water--and sweep very lightly, trying a very small, inconspicuous area first. I have never done this, because I do not look at paintings as commodities; if I buy an old dirty painting, it's because I really LIKE it. A small area badly cleaned with Ivory Snow would become highly conspicuous, ruining the overall effect of the artwork. My logic here would be that, if you love a commercially-valueless painting (which still has great personal value to you), live with it as is (some of the grunge on its surface might, conceivably, be a small part of its appeal for you), or save up for the services of a reputable conservator.
Again, great post!
I guess the question about smoking parents is directed at me.... the post is over 2 years old, i don't live there anymore. i did not have the paintings cleaned.
They do not smoke and never did in the house. It's dust and flies mostly. The fly specs are many and I find them distracting. The paintings are very valuable, so I did not dare to touch them.
We do,however, have a fireplace in the room where some of them are, which contributed to the dust layer. Especially one painting has large white areas - now grey with fly poop all over.
I am not going to clean them anytime soon (and I don't think they will), but at least I learned that if and when I do, I'll take them to a professional restoration artist. Or to the author who is still alive, if he's willing.
Miklos, I live rather close to the Winterthur Museum and Conservation School. I sometimes share tech equipment in my field along with the painting conservators. They will often run a series of non-destructive tests using Dispersive X-Ray (EDAX) to scan the pigments and determine chemical makeups of varnishes before doing any planning on conservation.
I see NE MAine. Anywhere near Eastpawt?
Farmerman, I greatly envy you the proximity to and connections with Wintherthur. A great place. And sharing equipment is an excellent way to share expertise!
Eastport is two hours up the coast from us. It and Lubec are like the ends of the earth, as you probably know, because the nearest border crossing with Canada is up in Calais. Both Eastport and Lubec have grown, modestly, into tourist destinations, so many of the handsome houses in various styles have been rehabbed. They were in rough shape 5-25 years ago as the sardine-canning businesses died out, leaving no solid income. We often go up for a peaceful overnight and some good food in spring or fall.
The other factor in the rejuvenation (and, alas, the sometimes ugly gentrification) of the extreme northeast coast is the availability of shorefront property. In the local paper I saw an "estate" on Trecott (!), selling for over a million. The seller may get that sum, even in this depressed market. Ten years ago, our daughters liked to picnic in Trecott because the roads were still dirt, and the beaches were empty. Such is life!
Oops. Please make that "Winterthur!"
It's great to have you back, Miklos.
