A painting usually is brought to Lowy for conservation because it is discolored, damaged or structurally unstable. Sometimes, though, a painting comes to Lowy because it has been poorly restored. In the latter case, one problem that is frequently encountered is extensive overpainting. The final stage of conservation treatment, after an artwork has been structurally stabilized and cleaned, is inpainting. For this procedure, a conservator uses pigments suspended in a binder to integrate damaged areas into the rest of the painting. Inpainting is always restricted to the parameters of the damage and describes painting “with-in” areas of paint loss. Conversely, overpainting describes painting “over” the entire area of damage, including covering some of the original paint applied by the artist. For example, if a less than competent restorer was unable to hide a small area of damage in the sky of a painting and decided to repaint the entire sky, he would be covering a large portion of the original painting. This approach would diminish the painting’s quality and appearance and, consequently, compromise its value. In addition to covering the original image, overpaint also may be applied in colors that do not match or are not consistent with the artist’s original palette; these restorations are obvious and unattractive. Sometimes a visual or ultraviolet examination will reveal that a picture has been overpainted. It also may be necessary to make chemical tests to determine whether an area of restoration has been overdone.
If so, the conservator will try to remove the overpaint with a mixture of detergents and solvents. This cleaning solution first must be tested against the painting to ensure that it does not affect the original paint layers. Once the overpaint has been removed successfully, the conservator will inpaint to cover any damages, observing the “less is more” policy of reversible, minimal intervention. A painting often appears brighter and more vibrant after proper restoration. Overpainting is a common problem on paintings that were restored prior to and during the early 20th century. Many of these restorations were done with oil paints or casein, a milk-based paint, which are not as easily reversible as modern synthetic paints, the preferred medium of today’s conservators. As oil paints age, they tend to darken in color, and become more transparent and less soluble in detergents and solvents. These changes often become more visible to the naked eye over time. The original oil paint layers, as well as oil paint restorations, undergo the same transformation, but because they were not applied at the same time their aging cycles differ, thus causing uneven variations on the surface of the painting. Restorations typically show up as dark purple areas under ultraviolet light. As always, the fewer restorations a painting has the less its value will be affected. Lowy strives to maintain the highest standards when restoring artworks that have been overpainted. The firm’s goal is to recover as much of an original artwork as possible in order to respect the artist’s original intent and preserve it properly for future generations.