She opened her eyes after 150 years! A shocking restoration😮

Hello everyone. I am showing my new painting restoration project. This is a work by an unknown Russian artist. A child's portrait. I think the painting is from the turn of the century, either the late 19th or very early 20th century. And this is the beautiful portrait I received. The painting has a significant amount of uneven varnish coating requiring restoration. It is possible that it wasn't even applied by the artist. There is also heavy soiling on both the front and the back of the painting including dust and more. Possibly even soot that settled on the painting from both sides. Rooms were heated with fireplaces which was very common at that time. There is also a lot of dust behind the stretcher, meaning between the painting and the frame. You can see a large accumulation of dust and dirt. The first stage of my work is removing the painting from the stretcher. The painting is fastened with wire nails with the heads nipped off. This is probably more characteristic of the 20th century. I have encountered it in works but it could also be the end of the 20th century. I pull the nails out gradually without rushing so as not to damage the original edges. After all the nails have been removed I carefully take off the painting and you can now see how much dirt and dust has accumulated over so much time. The painting had not been removed from the stretcher. There was a leak. You can see it clearly at the bottom of the painting. The canvas got wet which caused paint losses in the lower part and the background. Here is another leak. It seems as if a wall was leaking somewhere and the portrait got wet. There is this kind of dirt and yes there is some whitewash present. I am removing it. First I wash the stretcher to remove the dirt. I would also like to note that the original stretcher will not be replaced because it is quite sturdy and the client wished to keep it. I don't see any need to replace it so we decided to preserve it. Now I am removing the remains of newspaper or some kind of clippings which were used to seal the edges. Apparently the painting was glued at some point to fix it into the frame. Using paper or newspaper that's how they used to do it. And now I will stretch a painting onto a temporary work stretcher. This is necessary so the painting doesn't shrink during the consolidation and cleaning of the back side. I am using craft paper for stretching. Here I have already stretched it and I am showing the next process which is consolidating the ground and paint layer of the painting. I apply animal glue and restoration paper to the surface of the painting. I need to flatten the work and stabilize it so that it doesn't flake or deform in the future. Why is the paper needed? It presses down all the unevenness of the ground and the paint layer and it is also convenient to iron over the paper rather than directly on the paint layer. Once the paper has dried and the weight has been removed we can proceed to the next stage cleaning the back of the painting. You can see just how dirty the reverse side is over time. Dust, soot and grime have accumulated here. Also there are unknown substances that have seeped through to the back of the painting. Below you can see the of the original canvas, the part that was under the stretcher bar and was not exposed. I need to clean the reverse side until it is uniform. If left uncleaned it could become a breeding ground for microorganisms or mold so restoration protocol requires cleaning not just the front lap but the back as well. I'm carefully cleaning it using cotton swabs. The work is done gradually. You cannot just take and soak the entire painting. That is too dangerous. I am blotting, gently blotting the work, the back of the painting and now the entire reverse side is almost completely clean. Only a small patch of dirt remains. I would also like to mention that every stage of restoration is documented with photos so that you can see how it looked before, during and after. This is also provided to the client. After the back has been cleaned the rest restoration paper is washed off because the work has sat under weight and has leveled out and the facing is applied temporarily meaning it is not meant to be permanent. Facing or paper it can be referred to by several different terms. It is removed in sheets like this. The paper is removed and I proceed to the next stage of restoration gluing or reinforcing the edges because the original edges are weak and need strengthening and since they are not long enough new restoration edges are attached. They are attached using a special restoration glue which will be easily reversible in the future. I have applied glue to the restoration edge and I'm smoothing it out with a spatula. I would also like to note that the lining canvas is chosen to be as close as possible in weave and thickness to the original canvas and after the edges have dried the painting can be stretched onto the original cleaned stretcher bars rather than replacing them. The stretcher frame was also reinforced where there were some small chips and cracks. The entire structure was glued and reassembled. Now I am stretching the work first onto the edges of the stretcher and then to the reverse side meaning first with one set of nails and then secured with another set. Once stretched over the edge of the stretcher the keys or wedges as they are sometimes called are tapped in. They are needed so that in the future if the painting sags that is if the canvas begins to deform you don't have to re-stretch it. You can simply tap these wedges or keys further in. I am currently finishing the reverse side of the edge so that everything looks as beautiful and aesthetic as possible not just from the front but from the back as well. For restorers it is very important that it looks beautiful not just on the front side but on the reverse side too. It is beautiful and pleasing and now I am showing the next stage cleaning off the old yellowed and uneven varnish. Many tests were conducted to remove it and a maximally suitable solvent was selected that acts only on the varnish without damaging the original painting because painting is the most valuable part of the work. You can see how much the varnish has darkened over time turning even brown and how it distorts the colors of the original painting. I think I will be silent now and just let you watch how I work because there is probably no point in adding anything or talking. It is also very pleasant to watch how the work transforms. After the painting was completely cleared of the old varnish and had dried restoration gesso was applied to the losses. There wasn't much of it so I am not showing that process but rather the next almost final stages toning in the paint losses. I am filling in the losses of the paint layer or doing retouching you could call it that too. That is I am matching the color as closely as possible to the original painting. The toning is done using the pointillism technique meaning with individual dots translated and the toning is done strictly within the limits of the losses but I have already mentioned this in previous videos and I don't think it's worth repeating and the toning is applied not in one layer but in several that is the paint dries and then it is applied again meaning an under layer is created because the painting is dense and sometimes complex areas have to be gone over or even glazed. Therefore the color is selected gradually and not all at once because paint has its own peculiarities. When it dries it darkens so you need to take this into account and always make it a little lighter because the paint will change and now the final stage of restoration after all the toning is done is applying a new protective coating. It will be very pleasant to see how it looks under the varnish now how the painting reveals itself. It becomes more saturated. It starts to just you can see how colorful and cool the painting is just as the artist intended. I go over every section of the painting so that the varnish covers the entire surface evenly. This is the most important thing that there are no uncoated areas. This is important. Well naturally as the varnish dries the work will not be this glossy that is the solvent evaporates and the varnish dries. The painting is of course very beautiful. The work feels like it is of an etude style that is perhaps it was an unfinished study or a portrait created for some larger work and this is the picture I ended up with after the restoration. The varnish has now dried and the retouching has set. Of course the eyes are captured very well here. As they say the eyes are the mirror of the soul and here I think the artist portrayed that very well. A gaze looking upward the nose is beautifully painted and the facial features are very pleasant. It has become so smooth strong meaning it will no longer deform or flake off. The reverse has also been cleaned the stretcher cleaned and the wedge is tightened and here is what the painting looked like before restoration and here it is after. I increasingly catch myself thinking that everything is fleeting but art is eternal.