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When
this portrait was brought to our studio it was rolled
up tightly like one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the
face was just a sneeze away from falling completely
off the canvas. The stretcher had long since been discarded,
and the canvas was unwilling to lie flat. The paint
film in the area of the face was so precarious that
if the painting had been picked up one more time there
would have been no painting left to see. Hot wax-resin
was dripped over the lady's face to keep the paint film
sticking where it belonged. Then moisture was applied
to the back of the painting to soften the stiff ridges
in the canvas. After several setups in our vacuum press
using heat, pressure, and more wax-resin, the entire
paint film was secured. The ridges in the canvas were
flattened and the old canvas was backed with a new lining.
The painting was finally re-stretched on a replacement
stretcher and today is stronger than the day it was
painted. Our "Lady in Red" now catches the eye of nearly
every visitor to our studio. The artist, Charles Allan
Winter, was born in 1869 and studied at the Academy
Julien with Bouguereau and Gabriel Ferrier. He kept
a studio in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where the painting
was found after having spent many years in a closet.
(Peter Williams/Museum Services Photo)
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