Blanching

Sally Cheyne <sallycheyne [at] clara__co__uk> writes

>I have a late 19th century unvarnished, oil on canvas, approximately
>2.5m x 1.5m. I think it has been stored in an outhouse or similar
>and now has severe blanching in the paint layer, confined to the
>darks, particularly browns and greens.  Nothing I have tried
>improves it (even the dreaded DMF) other than repeated varnishing
>and even this leaves a "bloomed" appearance on drying. Any
>suggestions?

Some time ago I had a similar problem. A painting had been damaged
by running water. The varnish had been penetrated and the paint
layer itself was covered with white stripes. When I removed the
damaged varnish and treated the painting on the low-pressure vacuum
table with moisture and heat the white stripes diminished but were
still very visible. I then started a local treatment introducing, by
brush, alcohol directly to a small area of the damaged parts.
Quickly I covered with Hostafan film and heated up this small area
with a heat spatula. I got very fine results with this method but
you have to be careful not to work on too large an area and to use
the right amount of heat. It is a time-consuming process but the
results were satisfying. Please e-mail me for more information.

Berit Moller
paintings conservator
Amalienborg Palace
Copenhagen, Denmark


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:69
                   Distributed: Tuesday, May 6, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-16-69-003
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