April 2022 at The Studio

Updates from the Director of Collections and Conservation

Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about our services, conservation or have comments in general. I hope our monthly newsletters are inspiring and give a platform for you to have a glimpse behind the scenes into the daily activity at the studio while also chronicling ongoing engaging conservation projects, client stories, and staff accomplishments. Enjoy!

- Robin Bernhard, Director of Collections and Conservation

Works on Paper Department: Humidification and Flattening

This large incredibly detailed hand colored lithograph entitled: The City of San Francisco has been in our client’s family for a very long time. The owner was very interested in having the print conserved so that she could pass it down to her daughter.

The print depicts figures of children playing and three adults in a garden overlooking the city with an open square and a harbor beyond. This sweeping panoramic view of San Francisco, published in the year 1855, captures the city as it settles into its new urban standing as the financial center of the American West. The artist, Flessenden Nott Otis, drew the view from a point on Rincon Hill, at the time San Francisco’s most stylish residential area. It is hard to imagine, but if we were to take a picture from the same spot today, standing at about the center would be Salesforce Tower. The viewer looks north over Happy Valley and the South of Market Area towards Telegraph Hill, Russian Hill, and Nob Hill. In the far background, beneath a calm clouds of the afternoon sky, we see parts of Marin including Mt. Tamalpais, Angel Island, Yerba Buena Island and the East Bay Hills that rise to the right.

Treatment for the print included removing the work from the old framing materials including the acidic secondary support and the heat-set lining tissue which both were causing discoloration in the paper. The print was then humidified and washed several times to reduce the staining in the paper. The remaining stains were treated locally to further reduce and the paper flattened. Finally, the edge tears were repaired and the skinned areas in the sky were consolidated and inpainted to prepare the work for framing.

If you have a project for our Paper Department please click here to contact us.

Painting Department: Henry Raeburn, Lt. Col. George Allen of the 16th Hussars, ‘The Hussar’, 1817 oil on canvas.

This painting by Henry Raeburn was purchased at auction by our client who was excited that it was on the market for possibly only the second time in its long history. It is noted that this work is one of the last paintings executed in the artists career. The painting was overall in good condition for being over 200 years old! The frame is a hand carved and water gilded Louis the XV revival style frame which is elaborately carved with C and S scrolls, floral motifs and shells.

Henry Raeburn was a Scottish portrait painter and Scotland's first significant portrait painter since the Union. He served as portrait painter to King George IV. In 1784, he moved to London and then spent some time in Italy but returned to Edinburgh in 1787 where he began painting portraits of the most important rich and famous society figures of the times.

The treatment for the painting included an aqueous clean to remove the superficial dirt layer.  A careful approach was taken to remove the discolored varnish where the oxidized varnish specifically focused on gently removing areas around the skin tones, whites of the dress shirt, cuffs and the stripe in the pant leg. In the darker tones of the painting, particularly the background and the object under the figure’s right hand, the varnish layers were thinned to attempt leaving the colored glaze in order to avoid any new extensive retouching. Next, a new conservation grade varnish was applied before the painting received its final retouching. The frame received only minor conservation treatment to attach the loose sections of frame molding, consolidate losses and flaking sections, and infill the cracks and losses and retouch.

If you have a project for our Painting Department please click here to contact us.

Object Department: Anoxia Pest Treatment

Early 2022, we launched a stand alone Pest Facility with a dedicated bubble chamber. In this Facility, anoxic (without oxygen) conditions are used to treat insect-infested objects. The procedures employed are safe for both people and collections. This makes anoxia an attractive alternative to toxic fumigants. However, the oxygen levels needed to kill insects are so low that an anoxic environments need to be carefully monitored to be effective and to ensure the safety of objects and sensitive materials.

This mask was brought to the Pest Facility with the hope that it could be later lent to a Museum exhibition in Illinois. The Mask is made up of an array of organic materials with extensive organic debris due to the previous pest infestation, including insect casings and frass. The mask is attributed to Wee (Wè), Dan, Bassa, Guere or Wobe from Cote d’Ivoire or Liberia. According to the National Museum of African Art History and Culture, these masks are used to “perform in a variety of contexts, including the settlement of disputes, communication of moral messages and warfare”. This face mask exemplifies the use and juxtaposition of both local and imported materials, including imported metal bells and shell crotales.

After anoxia treatment the mask was gently cleaned and stabilized including mechanically removing insect frass and casings from around the fragile leopard hide at the top of the head and sections of fur were cleaned and reattached to the hide.

If you have a project for our Object Department please click here to contact us.

Preservation Arts is the premier center for fine art conservation on the west coast. We specialize in museum quality conservation of paintings, sculpture, objects, works on paper, rare documents, furniture, public art and murals. We have expertise in emergency treatment of damaged art collections and provide collection management, art transportation and storage for your fine art.