Cleaning a very dirty and foxed water colour

I always think that foxing sounds kind of cute, perhaps something involving fluffy little foxes or a game. Unfortunately, the reality is less attractive. This particular item is a water colour on board by the artist called R. Talbot Kelly. It is part of a series of water colours, which look to me like he might have painted them from photographs. The client who brought me the painting had bought a pair of paintings from an antique dealer, both quite dirty but one in greater need of action than the other. The painting and frame had a number of problems, as follows:

• The frame was dirty and blackened with loose ornamentation and flaking gilding.

• The back board on the frame that was holding the painting in was poorly attached and ill fitting.

• The glass on the front of the frame was quite dirty, poor quality and the tape around the edges had worn through depositing small slivers of glass onto the painting as a result of it fitting poorly.

• The acidic back board had caused darkening of the painting verso.

• The painted surface had a lot of loose dirt on the surface and past insect activity from book (or paper) lice deposits had caused staining, foxing and mould growth within the body of the board.

This is the first picture of the painting just after receiving it, the dirt and salt deposits can be seen on the surface of the frame.

In this close up the corner shows some of the dirt deposits as well as mould on the slip frame and picture surface itself can be seen more clearly.

The reverse of the picture shows the degraded, flaking paper stuck to the back.

The first thing upon receiving the picture was disassembly so the problems could properly be assessed.

The above picture shows some of the loose dirt and dust on the surface of the back of the water colour board. All loose dirt was removed with a soft brush on the initial light clean.

I originally had the idea of removing the foxing from the painted surface with a gel sheet. After some research I settled on testing agar agar and gellan gum at 1%,2% and 3%. In order to infuse the gels with different substances it first has to be dried out and then rehydrated with the chosen mixture. After some experimenting I settled on a 2% gellan gum gel with 25% isopropyl and distilled water mix. If the gel was too firm then it failed to get into the tooth of the board and at too low a percentage it was too 'wetting'.

This close up of the front of the picture shows the dirt on the surface. The UV light shows the extent of the foxing more clearly.

Initially I was disappointed with the effect of the gel on the surface, as it seemed to make no difference. I was very cautious with the timing of using the gel on the surface, not wanting to go straight to 15 minutes ( or more) as the reading and research had suggested. This was probably why it appeared to make no difference. As I started to build up the time the gel was in contact with the surface, it slowly and began to make a difference. this was evident in the discolouration of the gel and detritus that it picked up

In this microscopy picture, the discolouration and some fragments of insect can be seen.

I was pleased with the balance of conservation and restoration that I achieved. I think the aesthetic of the object was improved, the client's requests were fulfilled and the objects needs were serviced, improving the longevity of the object.

I will be talking more about the actions that I took while working on this piece, and the overall result in a later blog. If you cant wait, then the before and afters are on my insta and FB. Please feel free to message me via my social media if you have any questions.