Painting Department: Surface Cleaning and Gilded Frame Treatment

During Treatment: Adrien Moreau, Rehearsal of Richelieu's Tragedy 'Miriam’, 1879, Oil on canvas

Our client purchased this exquisite 19th century painting by Adrien Moreau and became fascinated with the historical events depicted. The setting is likely the Palais Cardinal in France. On the right side, the figure is reciting lines from a play written in 1642 entitled Mírame to the Cardinal Richelieu who is clad in red robes and reclined in his red velvet chair with a copy of the script in his left hand. It was fashionable at the time for the nobles to be patrons of the arts, this painting captures the period of Louis XIV, in costumes, decor and an excellent portrait of the Cardinal.

Adrien Moreau began his artistic training as an apprentice glass maker but left for Paris to study. His first exhibit at the Paris Salon was in 1868 when he was twenty-five years old. During his life, he became most well known for his historical depictions of the French upper classes leisure time and landscapes that featured peasants and their everyday life. He also provided illustrations and drawings for books by authors such as Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Alphonse Daudet and Honoré de Balzac.

Overall, the painting and frame were in very good condition for its age. The treatment included dry cleaning the verso, locally humidifying the deformation on the top edge and the original stretcher was clamped and mended. The painting was given an overall aqueous surface cleaning which removed the water-based retouching and revealed a few losses in the paint film. Next, new layers of varnish were applied on top of the existing layers and the losses were filled and retouched.

For the Louis XV Revival style frame, the areas of unstable and lifting gilding as well as cracks in the plaster were consolidated, sections of missing ornamentation were replaced by taking molds of intact ornamentation and the losses were filled and areas of exposed gesso were inpainted and gilded.

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(Left): Before Treatment (Right): After Treatment

(Left): Before Treatment, detail of gilding and loss (Right): After Treatment.