Posted 7 years ago
Greatsnowy…
(8 items)
I just got this from france. these are the sellers photos. bought it because I'm a sucker for dark seascape type pictures. but what you can't tell from these photos is just how dirty it is. I went over it with a very lightly damp papertowel and it came up black. the back is much much darker than this photo honestly I don't know how they got it to look so light inthe photos. the painting is also darker appearing in person than here. it's turned into a dilemma for me. it's so dirty that my husband won't let me have it in the house. he has declared it a health hazard. (hmm I guess I see it in the second framed example now that I look for it lol)
the artist appears to be S. montagines (but can't be sure of that.) I can't find record of them anywhere. there is some writing in french on the back of the frame the part bar that goes thru the center of the painting. it appears to be stamped. I'll try to get photos of it. it's in the garage now though. any idea of age? the canvas is nailed to the board.
and the overarching question, is this this painting worthless? I didn't pay that much for it. is it worthy only of the trash heap? or is it worth the price of restoration? would it be terrible if i attempted to clean it? the frame itself is the worst for filth it might be a goner. I don't know how I'd tackle that. lol. it's also missing small parts of the gesso. and just from being shipped lost little pieces here and there. but it doesn't look bad. you have to really be looking for it to see the little lost areas. it's just SO dirty. like years and years of ash
I'd say it's a diamond in the rough Greatsnowy and not worthless. You must like it or you wouldn't have bought it. Please don't throw it out and be very careful about trying to clean the canvas with water and paper towels you could loosen the paint and that would be a disaster. The frame might benefit from cleaning with a slightly damp soft brush to remove the surface dust. At least to make it presentable. I love old paintings and less would be more until you find out it true worth. :)
I'd use a soft toothbrush with gentle soap and slightly moistened (very little water) to clean the frame in between those fancy bits of frame, then wood cleaner and conditioner with new soft toothbrush and clean soft t-shirt rag. I'd use a very soft cotton t-shirt rag and gentle soap and water (very little) even a soft toothbrush to clean the paint. It looks like oil. Should be fairly durable, and not dissolve. But I'm no restoration expert, but I've done some oil paintings, and bought some old frames. You can always touch up the frame with new gold, and no one would miss the chipped bits, if a bigger chunk is missing. Just leave the tiny chips. Love those old frames. They have character.
Hi,
I have cleaned and saved a lot of old paintings by myself. I would do the following:
1. Remove the painting from the frame.
2. My guess is that it is oil on canvas. You should be able to tell the age of the painting by the shape of the nails that were used to attached the canvas to the frame. Also the canvas fabric can be indicator of age. Again, you can find this info on the Internet.
4. Do not use any water to clean the painting! Get some Q tips and you will need to do a lot of spitting - meaning wet the Q tip in your mouth and very gently in circular motion try to clean very small spot somewhere in a corner.
See if it works.
If you need something more drastic let me know.