This wonderful and sizable painting by Federic Rondel Sr is about 60″ x 30,” and is not without its condition issues. Evidence for prior restorations includes possible in-painting and several quite long vertical cuts throughout the painting where damage of some sort has been “buried” by a restorer’s hand but is not unseeable. Once de-fitting is complete, and we get it a look at the reverse, we will have a better understanding for the condition. We can tell, however, that the painting was re-lined at one point. The blacklight was used to quickly scan the surface to check for in-painting. A more thorough look will be carried out in our windowless, “examination” room. Stay tuned for more…

Frederick Rondel was born in Paris in 1826 but emigrated to America and was best remembered as being the only art teacher for Winslow Homer. He was also a successful landscape and marine painter who painted extensively throughout New England and as far as San Francisco. A recurrent subject matter for his paintings are views along the Hudson River.

Rondel’s New England landscapes and paintings of New York City were ultimately influenced by the romanticism of his teachers in Paris: Theodore Gudin and Auguste Jugelet (Jugelet himself being a pupil of Gudin).

It is known that in 1855 to 1857 Rondel was in Boston, having arrived from Europe, and one year later was in South Malden, Massachusetts, while concurrently keeping a New York City studio.
He was away from New York in Europe from 1862 to 1868, the duration of the Civil War, but returned to the city to be a faculty member at the National Academy of Design, where he had become an Associate member.

He exhibited at the National Academy, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and the Boston Athenaeum.

Frederick Rondel died in 1892.

The self-portrait by Alfred Juergens (1866 – 1934) has deep and severe damage, and is extremely dirty. Due to its age and its extreme dry condition, extensive instances of cupping and craquelures have appeared.

We have removed the painting from its stretcher bar and vacuumed the reverse and removed the adhesive patches. Initial tests have been carried out on the front to determine how stubborn the old varnish is.

After careful cleaning, the painting will be re-lined to improve its foundation and allow us to consolidate the cupping and craquelures. Once it’s re-stretched we will in-paint where necessary. Stay tuned for more.

Alfred Juergens was born in Chicago on August 5th, 1866. Juergens studied at the Chicago Academy of Design, and also abroad at the Munich Royal Academy under Kochler, as and was also a pupil of Wilhelm von Diez. 

At this time, Juergens was focused on mural decorations, and he became a member of several noteworthy organizations: Munich Artists Association, Artists Association of Germany, and the International Society of Fine Arts. His works were awarded silver medals at Madrid and Munich, and a bronze at the Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915. 

Juergens transitioned subject matter from religious scenes to flowers and tranquil genre scenes. The Art Institute of Chicago and the National Academy of Design exhibited many of his works. 

This painting from the Civil War period proved to be one of the trickier paintings to remove from its stretcher. Besides the more obvious time-related effects: loss of hydration, degradation of paint film, destabilization of canvas, degradation of the stretcher bar wood–time has also seen the advancement in how paintings are attached to stretcher bars, and as a result this painting had a few tough corners. Some delicate scalpel work and finessing with fingers and one of our newer restoration agents helped to get this painting off while maintaining as much canvas integrity as possible. Stay tuned fore more…

A common problem for oil paintings that make their way into our is a dry canvas. Some of this stems from the age of the painting and the natural degradation that can occur. In addition to this, archival practices have improved throughout the years; but, then again, shocker, artists don’t always play by the rules or seek-out the best archival practices while the muses are speaking them. And then more traumatic occurrences can occur, like flood damage, and those can also take a heavy toll.

Despite the cause, one of the best practices is to adhere new archival linen to the reverse. We make an in-house adhesive, that is quite pungent, and heat it to a liquid that we can then spread. Often times this process is done later in the day when foot traffic in the studio is at a minimum, or when the weather cooperates we can wheel our nifty worktable outside and work under the influence of some fresh air.

Adhesive is applied to one side of the new linen, and to the back of the painting, and then the two are sandwiched together, and “cooked” in a heat press. The result is a tremendously good foundation for the painting, with the added benefit, curtesy of the pressure in the heat press, of consolidating the paint film where nasty craquelures might have occurred. At this point, the paint film is now ready for further restoration.

Bonus question: How do you reline a canvas that has a painting on both sides?

Answer: You edge-line it. Instead of covering the whole painting you place strips along the edge.

This side of the painting, an abstract, has a landscape orientation.