If you are the owner of a masterpiece, old or new, it is important that deterioration is kept to a minimum in order to keep its value. A family treasure that has been handed down through the generations is not only significant, but has value.
Items that we take into consideration when restoration is contemplated.
Is the painting on wood or a textile, and what is the condition of that structure? Wood can have insects and fungal infestation. Wood can split over time, as well as glue losing its fastening ability. Cotton and linen are the two most commonly used. A fine quality oil painting is best painted on a quality linen fabric primed with and oil base primer. Cotton primed with an acyclic is commonly used, however inferior if you are painting with oil. If you are using acyclic paint then that is entirely a different situation. We can replace the stretcher bars if they have also deteriorated, or if the originals were never designed to properly stretch the painting.
The paint layer can be effected by painting technique. Buckling, Fading, browning, yellowing, and wrinkling all can happen. The artist has control of these to a great extent. Many old paintings have craquelure due to a failure of some kind. Craquelure usually fits into one of four categories, drying cracks, aging cracks, blanching or artificial craquelure.
Old Varnish will eventually need to be removed due to yellowing, boom, embrittlement, craquelure, or crazing. All these conditions we are able to fix and restore.
Karl Brecht the second studied in Vienna Austria and Rome Italy at an early age under the tutelage of his father Karl Brecht in Weinheim Germany. Corona Art restoration was founded by Karl in 1969. Along with Seattle’s Fifth Avenue Gallery, and Corona Framing. Carl Brecht the third started by working at Corona Framing at an early age learning picture framing and art restoration. One of his first historic restoration works was cleaning and restoring a wooden bust of a French Bishop over 500 years old. Painting restoration is his passion.