current work - Sir Leoline Jenkins (1623 - 1685), after a portrait by Herbert Tuer, painted before 1704

Virtually the whole of the painting was covered in a modern, probably acrylic overpaint, possibly applied by a sixth form pupil at the school which owns the painting.  In ultra-violet light and under the microscope, it could be seen that parts of the face were not overpainted and were of good quality. It was quite a surprise to find a copy made so closely to the original under the thick layers of overpaint.

Removal of the dusty surface dirt made quite a difference.

Precise application of hydrocarbon solvent softened the overpaint allowing it to be carefully peeled away.

Overpaint removal exposes underlying layers

Not much detail is being revealed.  There is much filling material and streaks from an old degraded varnish.

Some original hair is evident under the overpaint on the sitters forehead

Original curls can be seen in the sitters hair.  Purple-grey fills appear to cover wide areas of original paint

Removing the modern synthetic overpaint, revealed a second overpaint layer covering cracks and losses in the original.  Tests determined if this layer could be removed.  This photo shows a detail of a test to remove this second overpaint layer on the lower right hand side

The two visible tones of beige, indicate a lighter original background colour with some variation in tone. 

Options include:

• Removing this second layer of overpaint
• Stopping at this point and toning down the purple grey filler

These options will be discussed with the owners to determine the final treatments