This pair of W.E. Baum (1884 – 1956) artworks, along with their frames, were recently restored. The first is a pastel from a place he knew well, Sellersville, Pennsylvania, and the second is an oil painting that actually depicts the view from his studio.

The pastel required a substantial amount of in-painting, as the dryness of the pastel had led to flaking. The board had introduced acid contaminates, but it was an artist’s prepared board, and that allowed us to “skin” it so we could easily de-acidify it. A new archival board was adhered, and an archival spray was used to consolidate the pastels.

The oil painting was also given a better backing, our honey-comb panel, which is very sturdy and provides excellent support. Upon investigation, we discovered an area at the bottom that had been gauged out and badly repaired, and there were also losses occurred where nails had been driven in. These areas were filled and then in-painted.

Museum glass was given to the pastel frame. It was also backed-up to allow the glass and paint surface to sit clear of each other. Before this wasn’t the case and it had actually led to some rubbing and loss of pastel. Motifs on the oil frame had areas of loss. These were remade through casts and adhered.