Conserving John Brett's
The British Channel
Seen from the Dorsetshire Cliffs
John Brett's seascape was presented to the Tate Gallery by his wife after the artist's death in 1902. But in recent years it has remained in store, unseen because of its poor condition. A thick layer of very discoloured varnish and dirt obscured much of the image, and extensive old retouchings appeared out of key with the |
Before treatment: The British Channel Seen from
the Dorsetshire Cliffs
© Tate, 2004 |
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overall tone of the painting. The Pre-Raphaelite Vision exhibition provided an opportunity to spend some time recovering this painting for display.
The technique Brett used for this painting was unlike his earlier, detailed Pre-Raphaelite work. This was evident even through the amber-coloured varnish, but the nature of the paint application signalled caution. If the painting process was an attempt to simplify his earlier, laborious methods, he seems to have achieved it by using mechanical methods to provide texture rather than precise detail. He did this by first applying a layer of textured ground, followed by a thin layer of paint which seems to have been partly resisted or repelled by the underlayer. He exploited this reluctance of the two layers to wet one another to create visual 'noise' across the composition. The result is a paint film that resembles the surfaces of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, but is achieved by a different method. |
Removal of the varnish was problematic. The problem for the restorer is not knowing in detail how the artist modified his oil paint to achieve the desired result. A paint layer that fails to wet the one underneath may be inclined to separate from it during cleaning. Also, in paintings such as this where paint has been applied uniformly across a large canvas, any variation in cleaning will be very noticeable. The difficulty of reading the image through the warm deep yellow layers raised concerns that subtle glazes or variations may be misunderstood. Whenever a painting is that discoloured it is wise to ask why. Does the coating hide some flaw in the artist's execution or some later damage?
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Fortunately there are similar works that are in good condition and we could be confident that the original state of this painting was well worth trying to restore. Happily, the result was successful. The removal of an almost orange coating (in fact, three layers of dirt interspersed with three layers of degraded varnish) from a blue green paint film proved to be the most dramatic colour change in my long experience of varnish removal. |
During treatment: The British Channel Seen from
the Dorsetshire Cliffs
© Tate, 2004
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