Featured Finishing the 19th c Fort Painting

Hey everyone, I'm nearly finished cleaning the ~20"x30" 19th century fort painting I bought a couple months ago. I didn't expect to spend so much time cleaning or to see such an improvement in sharpness and brightness. "Before" and "after" are in the same light conditions and same camera. Both were in focus. Went through over 200 cotton swabs.

Honestly the canvas probably benefits most from a relining, however I've got a stack of old grimy lower-value paintings to tackle. The plan is to remove the dimple in purple and patch the two significant rips in red. Then the plan is to apply an isolation layer of varnish, overpaint the areas of significant paint loss (all circles in pic 3), and finally apply semi-gloss conservation varnish for more pop!

P.S. Unfortunately the artist never varnished this painting, so some grime is next to impossible to remove.

2 questions:

1. How much overpainting should I do here? Do you think it would look better with less? How much time would you invest?
2. Do you have paint recommendations? I'm looking at conversation paints now.

Thanks in advance for all of your advice!

Before:


After cleaning:


Red: proposed patches. Purple: dimple removal. Orange: proposed overpainting.

 

That is one sleepy tree!

 

Fort? I see a bridge...where's th' fort?

 

It is the Whomping Willow.

 

I didn't realize the whomping willow was pollarded until getting this painting. Pollarding - Wikipedia

WL, I think the "fort" or castle is on the side of the mountain in the mist above the bridge.

Definitely an interesting painting. I still wonder where on earth was/is this? Guessing it isn't worth spending another 3 weeks on the painting unless I see some flying wizards though. lol

P.S. Wonder if the "fort" could be someplace like Kropfenstein castle? Burg Kropfenstein | bildebene | Burg, Mittelalterliche burg, Burg bauen (pinterest.co.kr)

 

So interesting! Thanks for showing the progress. Come back and update this thread later with more!

 

What value you place on your time is up to you. It looks like a good practice picture if you want to try all these restoration techniques, but it looks amateur in execution and even in perfect condition I doubt it would bring much. In terms of time spent and cash out of pocket, I'd guess you're unlikely to see a profitable return on investment.

 

Definitely not profitable at this point! I appreciate the input. Good thing I'm not planning to be a painter because the execution on this is far better than I could muster. lol

I'll post an update when finished and in frame. Thanks again everyone.

P.S. The painting is quite large and my phone camera is poor so some details probably aren't visible in the image.

 

Already a very good improvement!
I'm a fan of Baumgartner restorations, you may find interesting to watch some of his videos on YouTube

 

Updates 6-22-22: "De-dimpled" the canvas, patched 4 cuts, applied an isolation coat of varnish, and am now almost done with inpainting! I'm using Golden PVA conservation paints so the inpainting can be removed easily. Just have to work really quickly because the paint dries in about 5 minutes. Will grab a shot of the final product with a better camera.

Linen patching with wax resin (whoops, a bit too much wax):


While inpainting:


Almost done! (just needs a bit of inpainting touchup and final varnish):

 

An excellent job.

 

It looks great!

 

Amazing result, tech.

I think it is a hilltop fortress rather than built against and into a rockface.

 

Thanks a bunch. Could be! Do you know of anywhere in Europe like this?

6-24-22: Done(ish) (top coat of semi gloss varnish). Still not totally happy with the inpainting but I've got to stop somewhere.

High res:

For scale (fair size painting):

Up close:

 

Just about anywhere with mountains. It would have to be somewhere with willows, which could narrow it down.