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Restoration Stories: The Themes of a Dutch Landscape
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Message
Posted
Restoration stories: the themes of a Dutch landscape is the title of an article I came upon whilst perusing information and images regarding two masters of “The Dutch Golden Age” I’ve long been familiar with: Anthony Jansz. van der Croos (1606/07-1682/83) and Jacob van der Croos (c. 1630-after 1683). According to a hefty tome on my bookshelves, whose Dutch title translates as:Topographical Paintings of the Hague Historical Museum, Jacob van der Croos “was likely the son of Anthony Jansz. Van der Croos.” The article appears on the website of Fine Art Restorations, a UK company, and retails the story of their restoration of a small seventeenth century panel painting attributed to Jacob van der Croos. According to the author of this article, Danielle Burke, this Jacob van der Croos was “an uncle to the more famous Jacob Van[sic] der Croos who produced several well known paintings of The Hague and surrounding areas.” According to Ms. Burke’s article:
“Upon assessing the painting and frame in photographs, the primary recommendations from our team were to carefully remove layers of dirt, discolouration and contaminants. This would require a surface clean and varnish removal by our easel painting conservators. The frame also required areas of re-moulding due to decorative losses, as well as stabilisation of the mitre joins. The new areas of the frame would need to have their patina aged in with the rest of the frame, finished off with a gentle buff of gold leaf and wax[...]you can see the remarkable difference that was made after conservation work by our team.”
Nowhere in the article is it mentioned that any overpainting was removed. I certainly can see “the remarkable difference” that was made after their restoration team got through with it. Quite clearly, more than dirt and discoloured varnish were removed. A bit of topiary has been effected which both thins the bushes and denudes their edges of foliage. A wispy cloud at the top of the sky has gone west, and the hillock—atop which sits the solitary figure—has lost a subdued highlight(!)
Behold:
Posted
They do seem to have gone at it with a rather heavy hand, losing definition on the foliage and that cloud. Maybe they discovered it was later overpainting and removed it which seems to happen regularly in restorations.
As for the frame, same thoughts. They save it from collapse, but it’s lost its patina, and sense of age.
BTW if you haven’t seen it there’s a series on Amazon called The Art Detectives (also called Britain’s Lost Masterpieces) which I recommend. Bendor Grosvenor investigates lost masterpieces from the basements of our museums and galleries and Simon Gillespie lovingly restores them.
Edited
by Andrew Roles
Posted
Hmm - well, the frame needed all the help it could get, though I don't think it has benefited from the full restoration of gilding; it's lost its period charm. The painting - I found it a bit odd to start with, and the restoration, whatever it really consisted of, has brightened it up without making any more sense of those rather peculiar clouds, which read to me as lumps of cotton wool; but well, I suppose one has to remember one's looking at a screen, not at the actual painting. My overall impression is that this was not a very impressive painting - and cleaning it hasn't made it any more so.
Restoration is a skill in itself - and there are masters at it; and workaday cleaners and scrubbers with all the soul and sensitivity of a brillo-pad.... there's a good one on YouTube, one Jonathan Baumgartner - I think I've mentioned him before; he has saved some paintings well on their way to destruction - his videos are well worth a look. Though I think some hyper-critical souls might think that not all old paintings are worth the time and attention required - which would have been my opinion of this one, but perhaps my inner Philistine is peeking out.
Posted
Although I'm a fan of C17th Dutch art, I think this one is a bit dull, both before and after restoration. They seem to have almost lost what I see as a fence in the centre.
Bendor is a good bloke - he posts on social media quite a lot...often about politics. I rewatch the British Masterpieces with him and Gillespie whenever it's repeated on BBC4. There's 5 series in all.
Posted
Yes folks. It’s nowt to write home about. The frame was a dud before and after. If they put a nice Dutch-Ripple frame on it the frame’d be the best thing about it. The painting is clearly an amateur work. I’ve never heard of an “uncle to the more famous Jacob van der Croos” and I’ve studied the subject for over twenty-five years now. I know Anthonie and his son, Jacob (I think there can be little doubt about the relationship as they both paint in a virtually identical manner—indicating that Anthonie was Jacob’s master), and it’s not good enough to be by either; the connection, however tenuous, likely bumps-up the value a bit.
Robert, you’re no philistine. I think it must be one of those new-fangled “instant paintings” I’ve read about. “Just add hot water”(!)
Anthonie van der Croos:
Jacob van der Croos:
Jacob van der Croos:
Posted
"Entertaining" is the mot juste; not sure that your partner in discussion was entertained, mind.... I know very well that an image on a screen is not an adequate basis on which to build criticism, but it does give one a BIT of a clue, particularly with before-and-after pictures ... I find that those without a sense of humour, in which quality "Brian" seems somewhat deficient, are so often lacking in finer judgement too but there we are.
He does raise, tangentially, one interesting point; in suggesting that modern practice would be to add a barrier coat, before adding varnish - on the basis that varnish can sink into oil paint and thus complicate restoration or even make it impossible without sacrificing some of the paint layer. Well, that's why we wait for at least 6 months before varnishing - so that the varnish does not fuse with the paint. As for a barrier coat - what would that consist of? If permanent, it would surely increase the danger of oil paint cracking, as it continued to cure, or try to, beneath the barrier. I don't know what you'd use as a barrier - at least, that wouldn't cause more problems than it addresses.
Posted
Entertained, he surely was not. The bloke can't leave it alone. He's had another go. My riposte is a corker(!)
You're not missing anything about the "barrier" varnish, Robert. It seems to be a typically cumbersome modern notion.
In regard to waiting at least six months before a final varnish, Ralph Mayer considered it totally unnecessary in a thinly painted work.
Posted
Define "thin", I think.... I knew, very slightly, the artist Victor Voysey - he went through quite a long period of painting extremely thinly - the paint just staining the canvas. I wouldn't have had any qualms about varnishing that before 6 months were up; most of my stuff is a good bit thicker, so I'll continue to exercise caution. The advice used to be that early varnishing could cause the paint film to crack - especially on a flexible surface. That'll also depend on what is meant by thick and thin, but in practice and as we know, oil paint can crack anyway, whatever we do to it. My concern has been more about the later cleaning of a painting - if varnish is fused with the paint, cleaning off the old varnish is likely to take the paint with it (which looks rather as though happened with the restored painting under discussion, which I have trouble believing was meant to look like that).
I fear you have a last-word-at-all-costs merchant in your friend Brian.
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