The Treatment of Fire-Blistered Oil Paintings

Author(s): Alain G. Boissonnas

Source: Studies in Conservation , May, 1963, Vol. 8, No. 2 (May, 1963), pp. 55-66
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the International Institute for
Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1505279

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 ALAIN G. BOISSONNAS

The Treatment of Fire-blistered Oil

Received 16/2/63

FIRE damage to oil paintings ais terrible.

blown-up toy balloon. If you squeeze it,
it breaks,
Usually it involves a total loss to the but if you let the air out, it shrinks.
insurance
company or dreaded work for the Even though paint has not the elasticity
conservator.
Extreme heat will cause the paint to swell,
of rubber, why not try the same thing with
the paint blisters?
then to form pimples, blisters, pustules, andThe paint could first be
finally crater-like holes. At theheated
same to itstime,
softening point on a hot-table
and the airturns
the paint becomes brown and finally sucked out through the rear of
into charcoal. On top of all we usually
the canvas [I]. find
a heavy coat of soot. This was done and the result was superb
Too often in the past the so-called restorer
(Fig. 2). I discussed this discovery with a few
would brush off all loose paint andof my colleaguesthe
scrape and we wondered whether
blisters with a razor blade before weproceeding
could apply it to other burned paintings.
Visiting my
with his repainting. Even in 1956, I brother
was Pierre in Zurich, I
shown a restorer's shop where, to brought my horror,
this subject up. He happened to have
someone was sandpapering a blistered at his studio
paint- a burned painting by Steffan
ing.
(18I5-I905), oil on canvas, 40"5 cm x 58"5 cm.
Among reputable conservators, the way to Some blisters had already been treated with a
deal with burnt paintings is to treat each hot spatula and wax-resin adhesive. He was
blister in turn. The blister is gently heated willing to let me try my method.
with a small electric heat-controlled spatula As it was unlined and painted on a very
and, when soft, moulded back into place. fine canvas, we put the painting, face up, on
This is very slow and tedious work, and the a larger piece of fibreglass fabric.We felt this
result is somewhat unsatisfactory because the extra textile layer would help in drawing the
paint must be moulded into the supposed air out from underneath. Upholsterers' web-
original contours of the impasto. bing was placed over the upturned sides of
In October I96I, I had to accept a land- the painting, a Melinex sheet over all, and
scape signed M. de Munkacs. This painting finally the rubber membrane. The vacuum
was hanging in a room which had caught pump was started with the reducing valve
fire. Half of its upper part was covered with set for practically no pressure on the table.
the biggest blisters I have ever seen (Fig. I)- All we wanted was to have the membrane
some of them 5 cm wide and a centimetre and Melinex sheet brought into close contact
high. This type of blister is hard, very thin, with the surface of the painting. The heat
and brittle. It is almost hopeless to try to was turned on. When the picture was hot
heat such a surface with an electric spatula enough for us to be able to push a blister
without breaking it. If broken, the pieces down with a finger, the heat was stopped
cannot be put back into place because they and the vacuum valve closed gently. Immedi-
have expanded, and therefore will over- ately the blisters went down, but, in this case,
lap. With this problem in mind, I thought of middle first, so that a soft rubber roller had
55

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FIG. 2. landscap
FIG. I. Detail of a fire-damaged The sam
article
ment, showing large blisters. were
Size of

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 The Treatment of Fire-blistered Oil Paintings 57
to be used to help push the edges of the American portrait of no value which had
blisters down. The mistake here is obvious--
the vacuum valve had not been closed
slowly enough. But here again, when the
The varnish was removed. Part of the painting
was held, face down, over a source of heat of
painting was uncovered the result was
astounding.
I received two early American portraits
which had been in a fire over ten years ago
and were declared a total loss. Those were the
worst cases I have ever seen. They were so
black one could hardly make out the subject
of the painting. I started with the smaller one,
oil on canvas, double glue-lined, 75 x 63 cm.
It was put on the hot table, face up, on a
thick blotter with strips of upholsterers'
webbing around it. Very small strips of paper
thermometer ('Thermopaper') [2] with readings
of 140', 160o, and 18o0F. (6o', 70', and 8o'C.)
were affixed with scotch tape over the edges
of the painting. From a room temperature of
67'F. (2o0C.) it took 32 minutes to attain
i60oF. (7o0C.) at the paint level. The paint
was soft enough at this point to increase the
pressure on the painting very slowly to 22 inches
(55 cm).* The larger blisters disappeared, but
the pin-head ones and smaller ones remained.
Considering how badly baked the paint was,
I decided that more heat would not improve it.
After this, I started some tests on worth-
less paintings. One was an unidentified early
* Editor's note. Pressure or vacuum gauges can be
calibrated in a variety of ways. The one here described
reads o when there is no vacuum in the system. As the
vacuum increases, so does the atmospheric pressure on
the painting. It is this atmospheric pressure which the
gauge measures, whether in inches or centimetres of
mercury, pounds per square inch, kilograms per square
centimetre, etc. For a complete vacuum the gauge
would read 30 inch or 76 cm, because this is the pressure
of the atmosphere at sea level. A confusion may arise,
however, since in laboratories vacuum is measured by
the true pressure of the air (or gas) within the system.
Thus the highest possible vacuum has almost zero
pressure, and the gauge consequently then reads close
to 0, which is the other way round to the above. For
readers with different scales to that used by the author,
so long as one end represents complete vacuum, one
can say that his 22 inches corresponds to a reading about
two-thirds along the scale from 'no vacuum' to 'com-
plete vacuum'.
been impregnated years before with a wax-
resin adhesive by a colleague, as a test.
about 225'F. (Io70C.), which was sufficient to
cause blisters. In addition some of the wax
oozed out and boiled on the surface (Fig. 3).
The second test painting was a landscape, at
the most eighty years old, painted in heavier
impasto (Fig. 5). Here I removed the heavy
brown varnish over half the intended test
area. The heat bubbles were created in the
same manner and increased afterwards with a
hot iron, from the rear (Fig. 6).
Both paintings were put for treatment
directly on the hot table between Melinex
sheets, with suction strips alongside them.
The same vacuum and heat process was re-
peated as in the previous cases. From a room
temperature of 6I'F. (I6'C.) it took only 16
minutes to read I6o'F. (70'C.) on the paint
surface. Vacuum was made to 55 cm Hg and
the effect of using a rather hard rubber roller
was tested. After the table had cooled off,
the tested areas were examined (Figs. 4 and 7).
All the blisters had disappeared, but on the
cleaned area of the landscape the impasto
seemed to have suffered slightly (Fig. 7).
Next to it, however, after removing the
varnish, we found the paint to be almost intact,
except for some pin-point craters created in
the fire damage (Fig. 8).
Now I undertook the work on the other,
larger, early American portrait 124 X 101 cm,
hard-glue-lined (Fig. 9). This was treated in
the same way as the smaller one, with hardly
any result. The process was repeated but at
a much higher temperature. The larger
blisters finally went down, but all the smaller
ones remained. (Fig. io).
For demonstration purposes, I took a piece
from a Fine Art School oil painting, done
about fifty years ago on a 4 mm thick
soft cardboard. It was partially burned in the
same manner as the early American paintings.
Blisters were scraped over an area of about

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FIG. 3. Detail of an early American portrait used as a test. The

FIG. 4. blisters
The have treatment.
same after
been formed by holding the painting over a source of heat. Size of detail bottom.
I2"5 X 9'5 cm.

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 The Treatment of Fire-blistered Oil Paintings 59
35 X 35 mm, and next to it on a similar area nels, and must end over the suction holes of
blisters were carefully put down with an your hot-table.
electrically heated spatula (Fig. 11). This pain- Secure with scotch tape (or any other
ted cardboard 32 x 22 cm was then given self-adhesive tape) I cm2 pieces of 'thermo-
the same treatment as the others. The blisters paper', of readings above and below the
disappeared completely, though the impasto wanted temperature, along the edge of the
was affected by the use of too heavy a Melinex painting. Write with a soft pencil the indi-
sheet (no rubber roller was used), wherever cating temperature on each piece. Lay over
the paint had not turned brown (Fig. 12). the painting a sheet of Melinex (the thinnest
Where it had turned brown, no change you can get), large enough to cover all of
occurred; delicate blisters were not even the painting and half of the suction strips. (I
broken. But along the margin area where the have been tempted to leave out the Melinex
paint had started to turn brown, the blisters non-adhesive layer, but did not dare do so,
were slightly crushed (Fig. I3). being afraid that the heated varnish might
stick to the rubber membrane.) The rubber
membrane alone would of course take the
PROCEDURE FOR LAYING DOWN

BLISTERS CAUSED BY FIRE form of the blisters and impasto perfectly.

5. The vacuum pump is started, but ad-
I. Dust the painting with a very justed for no
soft vacuum (regulating valve fully
brush.
2. With a small heat-controlled electric open). Some air will nevertheless be drawn
spatula, find the softening point ofthe painting. out, and this gives the restorer time to go
This is easily done while your spatula is over the paint surface, pressing on the mem-
heating up. You touch alternately the edge brane with a very wide brush starting from the
of the painting and a 'thermopaper'. The middle. This will chase the air out, prevent
more the painting has been affected by heat, folds in the Melinex sheet, and ensure good
the higher will be its softening temperature. contact around the blisters and all irregu-
A blister in the centre of the picture will larities of the paint surface. My vacuum
very often require slightly more heat during gauge is calibrated from o to 30 inches (75 cm),
treatment if the edge has been protected by and during the above process the gauge will
the frame. not even register I division, though the
3. Remove the painting from the stretcher needle will be slightly activated. Depending
and, while holding it upright, have someone oil the fragility of the blisters, I have very
vacuum-clean the back. (To lay it face down lightly increased the vacuum to one or two
would break the larger blisters.) Lay it face divisions at the most. This, however, must
up and carefully iron the edges flat. Great only be enough for the rubber membrane to
care should be taken not to touch the adjacent take the form of the impasto and the suction
paint surface. Take note that no 'facing has strips.
been mentioned. 6. Heat the table. Set your built-in thermo-
4. Prepare a piece of thick blotting paper stat at the required temperature. If the pilot-
or fibreglass fabric, larger than the painting. light goes out before you have the required
This will help to evacuate the air and to temperature as indicated by your 'thermo-
support the irregularities of your painted paper', reset the thermostat a little higher.
canvas. Lay the painting face up on it after The 'thermopaper', and your writing on it,
you have checked that no dirt has stuck to it. can be seen very clearly through the rubber
Place strips of upholsterers' webbing all membrane; the instant it reaches its indi-
around and over the unpainted edges of the cating temperature, it will change from white
painting. These serve as air-conducting chan- to black. When this happens the thermostat

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 60o Alain G. Boissonnas
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FIG. 5. Detail from a landscape painting used as a test. The heavy brown varnish has been removed on the left. Size of
detail 70 X 3o cm.

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shou te
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deal te
glue
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will 7. Through the membrane, check a blister
with a finger-tip, to make sure that it is
buil
may
flexible and does not break (should it break,
The
then more heat is needed).

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 The Treatment of Fire-blistered Oil Paintings 6I
?~?~ink~
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FIG. 7. The same after treatment. The blisters have disappeared, though the cleaned impasto has su

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FIG. 8. The same after removal of the va

Increase the vacuum slightly,

be useful to goand
ovew
softfollow
help of raking light rubber roller.
the shri
heat offincrease
the blisters, and gradually the table
th
With certain canvases, especially
not already done ver
so
woven ones, theunderpaint pressure.
could be dr
the canvas if too much
8. Whenvacuum
cold,is us
rem
Should you notMelinex
be completely
sheet. Atsa
t
with the disappearance of if
be faced, the blis
relini
afraid to raise the usual scheme
temperature of wa
higher,

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62 Alain G. Boissonnas

ilow-,

Ile
_7

t7-

FIG. 9. Detail of a large eighteenth-century American portrait after fire-damage, before

treatment. Blisters and crater-like holes can be seen. The white streaks were probably caused
by water used to extinguish the fire. Size of detail I8 x 24 cm.

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FIG. io. The sa

satisfactor

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 The Treatment of Fire-blistered Oil Paintings 63
lining may be followed. The painting should of, to shrink and lay especially large blisters
not be cleaned nor its varnish removed caused by fire. When the paint has actually
before it has been impregnated to secure all been baked and turned dark brown, this
the previously uplifted paint. But after varnish method will not work. For this type, a heat
removal I recommend that the painting beof over 215sF. (ioo?C.) and over 22 inches of
put back on the hot-table with heat and vacuum is required (see Editor's note, p. 57).
vacuum, till the wax oozes out in front. This can only be achieved with a very small
This is because the effect of the previousheat-controlled spatula. Large blisters occur
impregnation may have been lessened by generally on relatively new paintings which
the solvents seeping through the craquelure are very easily affected by heat. The older the
during varnish removal. painting, the harder it gets, and the more heat
will be required to soften it.
CONCLUSION
ALAIN G. BOISSONNAS
This heat-vacuum method works much Perroy,

better and faster than any other methodlknowSuisse

Notes

I There has been no previous description of this method of treating fire-blistered

paintings, though the hot-table has been used since its inception for attaching
flaking and cupping paint. See, for example : R. E. STRAUB and S. REES-
JONES, Studies in Conservation, 2, no. 2 (1955), PP. 55-63.
2 'Thermopaper' : as given by ELISABETH PACKARD and PETER MICHAELS in Studies
in Conservation, 5, no. I (I960), p. 22. Paper Thermometer Co., Io Stagg
Drive, Natic, Mass., U.S.A.

BOURSOUFLURES DES PEINTURES A L'HUILE CAUSEIES PAR LA CHALEUR

ET COMMENT LES FAIRE DISPARAITRE

Resumre

Les digats causes aux tableaux sur toiles par
un incendie sont tels qu'en gendral ils provo-
quaient une perte totale pour I'assurance et
un travail presque insurmontable pour le con-
servateur qui voulait les rdparer.
Jusqu'" prdsent helas, certains restaurateurs
font sauter toutes les boursouflures avec un
couteau a palette et mnime passent la surface au
papier de verre (Fig. II A). Les conservateurs
par contre raplatissent les boursouflures l'une
apres l'autre avec un petit fer chaud (Fig. II B).
Cet article d6crit une nouvelle methode au
moyen de la table chauffante permettant de
chauffer le tableau entier jusqu'a ce que la
peinture devienne malldable. Toutes les bour-
souflures sont r6sorbees d'un seul coup en
faisant progressivement le vide sous la couche
picturale. Pour cette opdration, avant le tra-
vail il faut d6terminer la tempdrature n6ces-
saire pour amollir la peinture et pendant le
travail, contr61er la chaleur de la surface du
tableau. Ceci se fait t l'aide de petits morceaux
de papier thermique. La duree et la tempdra-
ture du chauffage varient d'un tableau '
I'autre. Pour les tableaux modernes, il suffit
d'appliquer une faible chaleur et tres peu de
pression atmosphdrique. Si le tableau a 6t6
sur une toile lache, il faut faire tras attention
de ne pas imprimer la peinture dans sa propre
toile par un exces de pression. En gendral ce
systeme permet un resultat parfait et inesper6.
A. G. B.

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 N ?

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FIG. II. Detail of a Fine Art School painting, about 50o years old, intentionally fire-damaged. The b
simulate a practice not unknown today. The blisters in area B have been carefully laid with an electricall

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 The Treatment of Fire-blistered Oil Paintings 65

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66 Alain G. Boissonnas

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FIG. 13. A larger

darker colour in t
not affected by t
blisters were slight
from the baked ar
successfully treate
(700C). This demon
ture before app

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