Image on reverse of painting support

Anne Bacon <anne.bacon [at] unn__ac__uk> writes

>I am currently researching the possible causes of a recently
>observed phenomena. Three textile supported paintings have come into
>the conservation department recently which display transfer images
>on the reverse ...

I've seen this phenomenon also.  I don't have any specific cases I
can remember off hand, but I think they were always early 20th
century paintings (mostly American in my case).  My feeling at the
time was that this image was produced by absorption of some material
from the paint.  In particular the image on the reverse reproduced
darkly painted areas such as a black coat and tie, but not a white
shirt or flesh tones.  This might suggest a black dye-like component
of the paint that slowly affected the underlying canvas.

This is probably not much help but at least you know you are not
alone in seeing this aberration.

Perry Hurt
Conservator for Regional Conservation Services
North Carolina Museum of Art
919-839-6262
Fax: 919-733-8034


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 18:54
                   Distributed: Friday, May 20, 2005
                       Message Id: cdl-18-54-006
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