See Paintings Conservation for a description of the restoration of the painting.
After consultation with collections curators, it was decided that without further information regarding the design of this painting's original frame, the new frame should be historically and visually appropriate, relatively simple to manufacture and capable of being taken apart due to the large size of the canvas (approximately 2.5 by 4 metres).
The final design agreed on could be said to be a hybrid of the frame around Alfred Stevens' Isaiah (1862, Tate N01846; Fig.1) and the mid-century frame around Progress (1902-3) by George Frederic Watts (Watts Gallery, Compton, Surrey). Both frames have applied English Composition decoration and are gilded with black lacquer friezes, a combination of effects that can be traced back a hundred years in England.
When the design was finalised, an accurate section drawing was made (Fig.2) showing how the frame was to be made using nineteenth century techniques. The Conservation Technicians then machined and put together the construction in softwood.
Frames Conservators then whitened up the completed frame sections and applied the decoration, this time in cast plaster rather than in composition (composition can shrink and crack with time). Those areas to be water gilded were given several coats of red bole and blue burnish, (the latter being a nineteenth century burnishing clay made with graphite) applied to those areas to be burnished. The applied decoration was oil gilded using a pigmented oil size. The frame was then gilded, black lacquered and toned to simulate a degree of ageing.
Figure 3 shows the frame prepared with whitening (size and chalk). For the decorative ornaments in this replica frame, plaster was chosen rather than English Composition which would have been used in the period frames from which the design of the new frame was derived.
To complete the structural work on the frame, different colours of clay were used (yellow, red and blue burnish - Fig.4). These were chosen according to the type of gilding to be used, as well as for aesthetic reasons and to appear historically accurate.
The frame was then ready for gilding. Areas showing red and blue clay were water gilded, the yellow tinted ornaments were oil gilded. The flat freeze was finished in black lacquer (Fig.5).
In the final stage all surface decoration was completed and the gilding toned slightly (Fig.6), so that the picture and frame complement each other in style and colour, as a single unit.
See George Cruickshank's The Worship of Bacchus 1860-2 in the Collection.
John Anderson (Head of Frames Conservation 1985-2003)
February 2007
(Continued from Painting Conservation: George Cruikshank's The Worship of Bacchus)
