Notes
Remarks: There are scattered losses with associated areas of lifting in the frame. Lifting will be consolidated with sturgeon glue. Losses will be retouched with watercolor. (Condition analysis and treatment proposal: Shawn Digney-Peer)Notes
Remarks: Mold along edges of frame.Notes
Overall Analysis: Condition before treatment: The painting was treated by Sheldon Keck in 1958. There is now fairly pronounced cupping of the paint layer and the inpainting and varnish are somewhat discolored. (The cupping has probably redeveloped since 1958.)
Treatment: The existing varnish and inpainting were removed with acetone. The painting was removed from the stretcher and placed face down on the vacuum hot table, with several layers of paper as padding. After heating to 165 F. under low vacuum pressure, the cupping was considerably reduced. The painting was lined to an aluminum honeycomb panel using a wax-resin adhesive, on the vacuum hot table. The excess wax-resin was removed from the front of the painting with petroleum benzine. A first varnish layer of Acryloid B-67 was sprayed. Losses were filled where necessary with gesso and inpainting was carried out with dry pigments in polyvinyl acetate resin AYAC. A final varnish layer of Acryloid B-72 was sprayed. The painting was secured in a new frame with ragboard shims and brass straps.Notes
Overall Analysis: Report of restoration by Sheldon Keck. The painting showed acute cleavage and discoloration in the sky, the varnish film was so thick that any determination as to repaint was impossible before cleaning. The painting was faced and placed in the Dutch method work frame. Two canvases were removed from the reverse, each saturated with glue, the original fabric showed several slashes and losses. When it had been cleaned off the reverse was coated with wax-resin which was ironed in and then the painting was lined with wax-resin on natural linen. The facing tissue was removed and the painting was cleaned. The entire sky, foreground and foliage at the left were utterly covered with repaint. The repaint was considerably in excess of losses. In the sky it covered two clumsy fillings one to the right of the center and the other in the foliage at the left. Both areas had been pieced in with oilcloth, covered with shellac and then repainted completely. There were scattered losses in the trees and a few small losses in the water, but the remains were adequate. The painting was ironed again and the surface filled and sprayed with a layer of damar. The painting was restretched on a new stretcher and the voids were inpainted in colors in poly butyl methacrylate and damar. The painting was sprayed with several films of poly butyl methacrylate. It was stripped with tape metal and backed with cardboard and replaced in its frame. The frame covers considerable of the edges but as these have been thoroughly abraded, there seems no real cause to reframe. The main scene is visible within the present framing. There was no indication of any signature but areas in which this might have occurred were so abraded that it may have existed originally and been lost.
Remarks: Details of condition: Major restoration, the Kecks, Brooklyn, 1958. See conservation for details.