Conserving Canvas Real Time: Days 3 & 4
We were given a lecture session about the history of paintings restoration in France. I found this particularly fascinating. Prior to the 1700s, there were no professional restorers - paintings were touched up by artists, and various cleaning techniques started to be developed and documented. Once we arrive in the 18th century, we have our first professional restorers - people who fix paintings full time, as their job. I was amazed to learn that one of the first professional restorers in France who held the "charge" of the king's collection was a woman! Her name was Marie Jacobe van Merle (1705-1775), married name Godefroy, and she succeeded her husband as restorer of the King's paintings after her husband died very young in a duel. As she had assisted her husband in restoring the paintings when he was alive, she was permitted to retain this "royal charge" (job/calling) and keep the charge in her family - and she actually became famous by restoring many paintings for the King in Versailles and the Louvre. As the generations progressed, this "royal charge" was passed down to sons, (and sometimes nephews), and pretty much stayed within certain families. Our speaker basically showed us a family tree that connected one of the Master Liners that still employs the gluepaste lining method at C2RMF today, to this "dynasty" of French restorers! He is employing gluepaste, which he has learned directly from the narrow line of masters that learned it from family members before them, and he is one of our instructors! I was really amazed by this! And here I am, being taught gluepaste linings in France directly from this prestigious lineage! I feel so honoured!
Today, the French only employ gluepaste lining techniques in very select circumstances. Firstly, it is only done on paintings that were already previously gluepaste lined - they generally do not execute a brand new gluepaste lining on an untouched canvas. The reason for this is directly related to the second circumstance: gluepaste linings are only executed on paintings that were painted prior to 1850, and there are no canvas paintings that would've lasted from prior to this time to the present without being lined. It is the lining that has slowed the degradation process and stopped these paintings from disintegration - we have these paintings today because of gluepaste linings. However the gluepaste lining method only works on traditional hand-prepared canvases with a glue-chalk ground layer. This lining process does not work on industrially-prepared canvases and industrially-prepared artist paints and materials, and once we arrive at the industrial revolution, most paintings from this point forward are made this way. But even if the painting does fit age and material criteria for being gluepaste lined, these restorers only execute a fully traditional gluepaste lining if the painting is in really bad condition and really needs the pressures and rigidity of this major intervention. They readily admit the process is "radical", and as they have access and contribute to all the same technical research and testing as the rest of the world's conservators, most linings today are done with some elements of modern and contemporary materials - they call these "mixed linings" - they start the process using traditional methods of consolidation and "refixage" (glueing the delaminating paint layer back down to the original canvas support that it has detached from), but then complete the lining process using modern resins and fabrics. The modern materials are more inert (less reactive to environmental fluctuations), and the process to complete that lining involves a more delicate approach, with less pressure and no heat or ironing. In this workshop, I am completing a "mixed lining" under the guidance of our instructors, on a mockup (fake) painting.
Traditional gluepaste lining is a much longer process than contemporary synthetic lining because every time you apply a facing layer to the front of your painting, or a lining layer to the back of your painting, you must wait at least half a day, or sometimes overnight in order for the paste to dry before adding another layer or doing then next step of the process. The instructors told us that the whole process for gluepaste lining usually takes about 2 weeks, sometimes more if the painting is an extra-large format. In order to demonstrate many different steps of this process on real paintings, and show us variable scenarios, they had prepared 5 paintings from the museum collections (the Louvre, Chateau Versailles, etc) that required lining, and brought them all to different stages in the lining process ahead of time so we could witness and sometimes assist in all the steps in this condensed period of time. There are so many steps to this process. We have put unstretched paintings under tension using "tirants" - kraft paper strip linings that shrink after being wetted and then drying, causing the tensioning. We have applied a "cartonnage" to the surface of the painting - the very specifically French way of facing a painting with rigid papers that bring cupped cracks and deformations into plane, again, using tensions from contracting paper as it dries after being wetted. We assisted with de-lining a large painting from the Versailles collection - removing the old lining, cleaning the glue residues of the back of the canvas, and preparing the canvas for re-lining. We had the pleasure of observing the very complicated process of executing a traditional gluepaste lining on a "transferred" painting - a painting that was historically removed from its original support (whether that be wood panel or canvas) because that support was degraded. ("Transfers" are no longer done today because the process leaves the remaining painting in such a precarious position.) This is the most challenging scenario - the liners are basically working with just a paint layer with no canvas, after they de-line it - so this process was one we only watched, and didn't assist with. But what a pleasure to witness such an advanced level treatment!
I feel like this blog post is only scratching the surface of the enriching experience I've been receiving... so much information has been jammed into my head in such a short period of time. It has been so wonderful to receive this education about the history and roots of modern conservation, and how the French still use some of these old methods today, but also incorporate them in with modern materials.
On Thursday night we were treated to a cruise on the Seine in Paris on Bateaux Mouches, with live music, delicious food, and of course champagne (from Champagne), and red wine from Bordeaux. Such fun!
