Project Summary:

The Marquis de Lafayette was a French military officer who volunteered for the revolutionary cause in America. Surrounded by his command staff and horses, Lafayette holds a scroll commemorating his victory in Virginia.  The portrait is likely a copy of Francesco-Giuseppe Casanova’s 1781 painting owned by the New York Historical Society. When this version was brought to our studio for treatment, the artist and date were unknown.

The painting was executed in oil on canvas that, at some point, had been glued to a laminate paperboard panel. It was coated in a thick, glossy resin that had degraded and turned yellow.  The support was delaminating at the corners and there was some evidence of old repairs in the sky.  

After documentation and testing, treatment began by dry-cleaning with a brush and cosmetic sponges to remove any loose dirt followed by an aqueous cleaning to further reduce the surface grime. We conducted solubility tests on the degraded varnish layer to find a blend of solvents that would reduce the varnish without harming original paint. While cleaning, we noticed a signature and date in the lower right. It is not completely legible, but the characters we can make out look like “Thomas Des… 1852.” Cleaning also uncovered previous small damages in the sky and foreground.

The lifting paperboard was stabilized with an adhesive. We then brush-varnished the surface with a clear coat of synthetic resin to protect the painting and saturate the colors. Finally, we retouched the damages in the sky with conservation-grade reversible media before placing Lafayette back in his frame.