Peonies, about 1900
Walter Gay (American, 1856-1937)
Oil on canvas
Bequest of Mrs. Leonard T. Davidson  1970.31.3 

How much will it cost?  $2,400 

ADOPT NOW!

The painting is unexhibitable in its current state, and it would be wonderful to have another beautiful example of an early twentieth-century American genre painting to hang in our galleries. Small cleaning tests have indicated that cleaning will be extraordinarily dramatic; this painting has gone brownish yellow with a coat of disfiguring, discolored varnish. Worse, there is a decades-old layer of embedded dirt trapped under the varnish that needs to be removed. There are no signs of retouching, meaning that the painting is in good condition underneath all that grime, but the cleaning tests also revealed that those layers are slow to dissolve, making this a painstaking, slow treatment – but one that is very necessary. The canvas itself is starting to lose tension in some areas, with a few undulations and bulges that can be addressed with careful stabilization of the tacking margins along the stretcher. Once clean, the painting will be revarnished with a stable, natural resin varnish. Finally, the conservator will regild small areas of abrasion on the frame and fill in a few scattered small areas of chipping.  

This is a straightforward treatment: we will remove the surface grime, the discolored varnish, and embedded dirt that is trapped under the varnish. Any losses of paint will be filled or inpainted as necessary.