The practice of conserving an unstable painting on panel by transferring it from its original decayed, worm-eaten, cracked, or distorted wood support to canvas or a new panel has been practised since the 18th century. It has now been largely superseded by improved methods of wood conservation. ^[2]

The practice evolved in Naples and Cremona in 1711?1725 and reached France by the middle of the 18th century. ^[3] It was especially widely practiced in the second half of the 19th century. Similar techniques are used to transfer frescos . Oil paintings on canvas often receive additional support or are transferred to a new backing.

Methods [ edit ]

The process is described by Henry Mogford in his Handbook for the Preservation of Pictures . Smooth sheets of paper were pasted over the painted surface of the panel, and a layer of muslin over that. The panel was then fixed, face down, to a table, and the wood planed away from the back until it was "as thin as a plane may safely go", and the remainder scraped off with a sharp instrument such as a razor. The ground of the painting was then removed by solvents or scraping, until nothing remained but a thin skin of colour, pasted over with paper and held together by the muslin. A prepared canvas was then attached to the back of the paint layer, using the same method as was used for lining pictures . When the glue had dried, the paper and muslin were removed by careful damping. ^[4]

The leading workshop carrying out the process in Paris in the eighteenth century was that of Jean-Louis Hacquin (d. 1783), who transferred many works in the French royal collection. Transfers from the workshop have sometimes been found to have a layer of pieces of silk, or of sheets of paper between the paint layer and the new canvas. The workshop was continued after Hacquin's death by his son, Francois-Toussaint Hacquin (1756?1832), who transferred many paintings taken to France from Italy during the Napoleonic period. ^[1]

Another method, used by Hacquin's contemporary, Jean-Michel Picault, dissolved the ground layer chemically, apparently with fumes of nitrous oxide , allowing the panel to be removed intact from the paint. ^[1] A later restorer, Marie-Jacob Godefroid is recorded as having achieved similar results by the use of steam. ^[5]

A less dramatic "partial transfer" tended to be used in Germany and Austria, in which a thin layer of the original wood was retained, and glued onto a new panel. ^[6]

References [ edit ]

Sources [ edit ]

• Dardes, Kathleen; Rothe, Andrea (eds.). The Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings: Proceedings of a symposium at the J. Paul Getty Museum . Vol. 3. Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute.

Massing, Ann, 'Painting Restoration Before ‘La Restauration’: The Origins of the Profession in France', Harvey Miller Publishers/Brepols 2012. See especially Chapter 2 Robert Picault and the history of the transfer procedure in France, pp. 31-61.

Citations [ edit ]