A Misty Night had been placed on a mount with a thick amount of adhesive paste. Over time, the glue had discolored and cracked. The first step was to remove the gouache from the acidic mount. Through a lengthy soak with targeted chemistry, we were able to soften the adhesive enough so that we could very carefully remove it with our fingers and a sponge. To neutralize the acids we used another chemical bath to deacidify the gouache. Blotters were then used to flatten and dry the artwork. This also drew-out the discoloration that we were able to correct with in-painting, matching the colors to original, and thus complete the restoration.
James Gozzard (1888 – 1950) was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and is known as a painter and illustrator in both oil and watercolor, principally of landscapes of the English countryside. He usually signed his work “J W Gozzard,” his middle name being Walter.
He became a prolific illustrator and his work was reproduced in a variety of formats, including postcards and art prints by Rosenstiels. Many of his paintings were published as prints, both in black-and-white and in color, particularly in the years up until the First World War.
Gozzard also painted under the pseudonym “F Arnold,” and the career he established as a published artist brought him some considerable success, partly as a result of his very precise and careful style, which made his work suitable for publishing in the days before advanced machinery and technology made almost any kind of reproduction possible.
Gozzards name today survives principally on the strength of his rural landscapes and moonlit scenes. He died in 1950.
