Featured What's going on with this painting? Advice...

Bought this today - oil on board(I think)- didn't look to long at it in the store - after getting it home I see it's by Mara Tran-Long (Google is my friend - French b.1935). Also now noticed it has a coating that is gummed up and looks like it's kind of melting(see pics) - is this just a coating of varnish that has gone old/bad? Something worse? Worth getting the varnish removed professionally and re-varnished? For what I invested in it - I could even try doing it myself - has anyone here removed varnish themselves? Thanks again for your help/opinions.

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I have heard of inexperienced cleaners damaging paintings. I wonder if this is a result of such a venture?

 

Lovely painting.
Tran Long sounds Vietnamese. Vietnam used to be part of French Indochina, so there is a French connection.

 

I've heard of that too.

No... wait... I've done it. Leaving well enough alone is probably a good idea.

I think the surface may be dirty (like nicotine) but I'm not seeing any real trouble there.

 

i bet it was stored somewhere very hot,like an attic. Ive seen that before on other art,I tend to walk away because restoration is so expensive. That being said,she's lovely.

 

Thank you all for your input - I'm going to try a simple cleaning with Qtips and spit - we'll see how well that cleans it up.

 

Qtip with spit did very little - tried on a few spots - got off a very small amount of dirt/dust - but didn't touch the stuff that looks like melted varnish.

 

You might be able to take this off with a few (very few) rubs with super fine 1000 grit auto body sand paper. 1 pass at a time and very little pressure.

 

There were a fair number of Indo-Chinese, as they were called then, artists who went to study in Paris. It might be worth checking before messing with her. If he's one of the known ones, this might be starting to be worth money. The Vietnamese art market is starting to follow the Chinese one, or was the last I heard.

 

Thanks Ruth - I've done a bit of poking around on the net and quite a few of her works have sold at auction :

https://www.invaluable.com/artist/tran-long-mara-iujrqba5t6/sold-at-auction-prices/

I certainly don't want to damage it. I'll definitely see if I can find out more about what the market is like for her work today.

 

Bringing this thread back from the dead to say that I was in thrift store where I purchased this painting today - and I found it's sister! Same issues with the varnish as the other, but - I'm thrilled that I have the pair now!

Also there's a small spot on this one where the varnish has actually flaked off and you can see that the color is actually a light blue underneath - the yellowed varnish makes the whole thing look green/brown.

Anyhow, here she is - this time playing a flute!

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Wow, how cool is that to find another one Good score Aaron!

 

same store....likely same 1st owner......check for more !!