The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1914-07-25
SAVING ART WORKS
How Paintings Hacked by Women
Are Restored.
Professionals Only Need a Hot Iron,
Strong Fish Glue, Manila Paper
and New canVas-Mauy Men
Are Experts.

London.-Although Mr. Sargent's
portrait of Mr. Henry James, the nov
elist, was badly hacked by a cleaveI
welded by a suffragette at the opening
of the Royal academy, it will not be an
over difficult task to repair it. The
work of restoration has been intrusted
to Maj. George c. Roller. says London
.Tit-Bits.
In restoring the portrait the canvas
after the painted surface has been pro-
tected with tissue paper. will be placed
on a slate table. The back will then be
covered with a sticky fluid, which will
be pressed through to the surface Of
the picture with a heated iron. In this
way the canvas will contract, and the
cuts in it will close up. The canvas
will finally be refined. and many
spots where paint may be missing will
be filled in by the restorer with a
special preparation.
There are men in London who fol-
low the profession of picture restoring
who are able to restore old paintings
of value which have large holes in
them. or the materials on which they
are executed hanging in threads
Moreover. they can, when necessary
transfer painting to a new canvas.
If a picture Of which the canvas is
cracked, torn or rotted with age is
handed to a clever restorer, the first
thing he does is to purchase 9 new
canvas the same size as the old one
Having obtained this, he CLUES a sheet
Of stout manila paper to the picture
He then carefully scrapes away the old
canvas. This is a job that might oc
cupy him for several days, or weeks
il the canvas is a large one. Having
removed every bit Of canvas, the
grounds upon which paint lies are
taken away by solvents or gentle
scraping, until nothing remains but
the fragile shell of pigment adhering
to the paper.
The new canvas is then covered with
the strongest fish glue obtainable. and
pressed firmly down upon the paper
bearing the picture. AS soon as the
painting is firmly attached to its new
foundation nothing remains but to
take off the manila paper. This can
be done with hot water, and the sur
face Of the painting has only to be
cleaned to look as bright as 1t was
when the artist painted it,
We believe 1t was NJ. Haquin,
French artist Of note, who first sue
cessfully transferred panel painting
to canvas. He glued a sheet Of pa
per over the surface of the painting
and afterward upon this a fine layer oil
muslin. When the glue was dry he
planed down the panel until 1t was oil
the thinness of match wood, when he
scraped off the remainder with long,
flexible knife This done. the mere
skin Of color held together by the pa
per and muslin was left, and 1t was
comparatively easy task to glue this to
canvas and remove the paper and
muslin.
If an old picture has a portion of its
pigment missing this may be replaced
by an artist with colors from a brush,
but sometimes old but worthless paint
ings are used for the purpose.
When the coloring of the drapery,
flesh, foliage or sky, as the case may
be, is found to match exactly the miss.
ing portion 1t is cut out to size and
glued on the canvas, the edges of the
joint being made impercNptible by the
aid of the brush.