This might be the case here, perhaps for the reason that the painting had extensive damage, only a fraction of the painting was saved. Or, there are other pieces of it somewhere out there. We will never know. One can only imagine how magnificent the original must have been once!

In order to conserve and re-stretch this painting, it was lined to an additional canvas. Careful in-fill and in-painting with restoration colors brought back the original artist’s intent.

That might have been the reason why the old man was eliminated. The result, however, was confusing. A leaning woman with a missing arm lovingly watching an empty ledge. The original topic might not be common, but it makes sense.

Very little was wrong with this Neapolitan painting after the removal of the old over-paint. A subject of such filial devotion feels strange to us today, but the vaults of museums are full of such strange paintings deemed unsuitable for modern audiences.

They were usually painted as pairs; a husband and wife, turned towards each other, with a standard size of 30”x25”. They were usually housed in simple architectural gold-leafed frames.

Over time, many are passed on to family descendants, but the connection to the actual person depicted in the painting is lost. Some of these paintings end up in attics or basements, waiting for a good samaritan savior. Having such a direct, tangible connection to the American past is becoming rarer and rarer. Once restored, though, the visual impact of these portraits is undeniable.

It was restored in the past, as most older paintings are, but over time dust and grime adhered to the surface, and the natural Damar varnish oxidized and yellowed. The deep yellow film altered the original colors and obscured details significantly. After cleaning, re-lining, and in-painting with modern methods, the young lady is as striking as she once was.

Old varnish and re-touchings were successfully removed without any problem. The painting needed very careful but measured in-painting (it is easy to over-restore Old Masters, due to abrasions and thinning of the pigments). On such a large piece, it took some time, but the results were very satisfying. The painting’s value appreciated multifold since the original purchase, and our careful restoration is a significant reason for its appeal.

...despite many efforts to denounce them as cliches, too polished, or stagnant and bourgeois. However, there is no denial of their beauty and ease of understanding.

For most of us, the beauty and undeniable talent of the painters take precedence over the need to experience art as a challenging struggle for innovation and desire for originality above anything else.

This painting was restored very poorly in the past. It suffered water damage that led to paint flaking and compromised the stability of the paint layer. The face was repainted, almost grotesquely so. Most likely by a very bad art “restorer”. Excessive over-paint is quite common in older painting, before the modern era introduced the profession of art conservator as a scientist.

Titian and his workshop produced copies of this painting to satisfy his patrons, as this was a fashionable image to display in bedroom chambers. However, in the conservative movements of the 19th century, such paintings were considered unsuitable and too risque. The solution was to make them “decent” and conforming to modern times. The alterations vary from just breasts covered, to a complete remodel as seen in this example. The original is unquestionably better, even if it needs to be moved from the living room into the bedroom.

The painting was damaged – not unexpected for a 400-year-old painted canvas. A larger piece of the angel’s head, the forehead, and hair were all missing. We restored this painting under the guidance of Italian experts in the Late Renaissance, which itself was a treat. We tried to reproduce the missing parts as close to the original as possible. It was not an easy feat, as every brush stroke was scrutinized for color and technique. The final result remains a feather in my hat to this day.

It was a heartbreak to see the torn painting. It took Stephen, my business partner and I many months to painstakingly put it back together, like a very large puzzle. We were lucky that the artist used a very high quality and substantial canvas that broke off without much fraying or fuzz. Anyone looking at this painting today would have no idea how much work and effort went into restoring it to its former glory.

Surprisingly, a fourth child, a slave called Belizaire, was painstakingly uncovered. We do not know exactly when he was painted out, but our guess is in the 1950s, based on the solubility of the overpaint. His hair was abraded, almost erased, so was much of his face. The boy was not only painted out, he was sanded off to make the new paint adhere better. It was a very delicate reconstructive job to put him back together. Much later, in the changing light of our times, this painting made national news, became a symbol of the racial struggle, and is hanging in the MET today. The restoration on it is attributed to someone else, but it was originally done by us.

Reading about the history of the family, all three depicted children were dead within a few years of the completion of this painting. Only Belizaire survived into adulthood as a plantation cook.

Then, slowly, mid-century modernist paintings aged to the point of needing restoration and started coming into our practice. Obregon’s large “En Gare” was one of them. It provided a welcome change to our routine and introduced us not only to a new conservation process and technology, but also to different types of art dealers and collectors than we were used to.

As the pendulum of tastes and desires of collectors swayed from old traditional paintings to modern art, we needed to adjust our approach to include treating acrylic and combined media art, which is, in general, a lot more challenging than any Old Master.

The restoration included stabilization of the paint layer. This process treated the extensive craquelure and flaking caused by exposure to excess humidity. With careful in-painting and a coat of fresh varnish, this painting became a statement piece.