On Transfer of Paintings

It is not uncommon to see an indication ‘oil on canvas, transferred from panel’ on the labels of paintings in the Hermitage. It refers a visitor to the restoration technique of painting transfer to a new support, which was particularly widespread in St. Petersburg in the 19th century but virtually out of use at present. Paintings on wooden supports exposed to humidity and air temperature were transferred to more reliable canvas. Tatiana Pavlovna Alyoshina, the restorer of the Laboratory for Scientific Restoration of Easel Painting of the State Hermitage, recounts the history, peculiarities and use of this complicated and hazardous technique.

The transfer (or “shift”) of a painting from the original support to a new one belongs to one of the most complex, demanding and dangerous techniques for radical strengthening of painting’s structure.

It is hard to identify what period of time this technique dates from. There is a generally held opinion that the early restoration experiments could have originated as far back as in the late 17th century. The earliest mentions of the transfer of paintings were made in the 1720s in Italy, while it was not until the 18th century that the work by d’Arclais de Montamy provided the first vague explanation of this technique. Why was it vague? It was because the formulas as well as this technique’s description were kept in strict confidence. How could such a dangerous method of conservation of art works emerge? The reason was that by that time the method of the reinforcement of a paint layer had not yet been fully developed. Both in Europe and Russia only some fragments of a painting with peeling paint were occasionally reinforced by means of starch or rosin-wax chemicals. Honey and sturgeon glue was used in Russia. It was thought that the transfer of a painting to a new support allows strengthening of the whole structure of an art work from both front and back sides. This method consists of the original paint layer with ground being transferred to a new base for the purpose of replacing the old and decayed support.

With this aim in view, the painted surface of a painting was pasted over with several layers of paper, and then with a layer of muslin and canvas. From now on, the back side of the painting became its work surface. The panting was fixed to a table (or to a canvas stretcher) with its back side upward and after that the process of support removal started off.

The original wooden support is removed from the painting fixed to a canvas stretcher. Restorer I.I. Vasilyev

In the case of wood it was removed by means of different carpenter tools; if it was canvas, it was either steamed or incised and then removed in the form of narrow strips. Sometimes threads were just pulled out of the canvas. This stage was followed by the leveling and clearing of the back side of the ground of a painting by polishing it with pumice; the losses were filled with chalk and glue paste, after which a new ground layer was applied.

Since this operation was carried out practically blindly, especially in the case of paintings with wooden supports, such interferences resulted in the considerable losses of the paint layer. This can be attributed to a high degree of complexity of the removal of the board in the even and layered manner due to the knottiness of wood.

From the second half of the 19th century before a painting was glued with paper, its front side was painted in cinnabar (artificial paint).This was designed not only to prevent the lacquer film from being damaged in the process of mechanical treatment of the back side of a painting, but also to use it as a “control” colour, which, in the case of support removal made it possible to immediately identify the loss of the original layer and ‘called for’ cautiousness. A layer of muslin or later gauze was placed between the ground layer and the new canvas on the front side of a painting. In order for the painting and new canvas to be held together and for the canvas to print through less on the front side of the painting, a layer of muslin or later gauze was placed between the ground layer and the new canvas.

Left: Muslin pasted over a new ground layer of the painting. Restorer I.I. Vasilyev
Right: Transfer of the painting from a wooden support. Removal of the original wooden support

In the first half of the 18th century Western Europe was not only well familiar with the invention of such a hazardous technique as transfer of paintings, but also practiced it. Best known are the restorers Alessandro Maiello and Antonio Contri in Italy, Picault in France). The first public demonstration of painting transfer from a wooden to a copper support in Russian took place in the halls of the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1768. It was carried out by the restorer of the Imperial Hermitage Museum, Lucas Conrad Pfandzelt, who in order to demonstrate this technique used Dürer’s painting ‘Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery’ from the collection of the Academy of Fine Arts. Attributed to Lucas Cranach the Younger, this painting is now kept in the Hermitage. The restorer made an inscription on the reverse of the painting about the poor condition of the board and his skilful saving it from decay.

Lucas Cranach the Younger. Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery. Oil on copper transferred from panel. 84 х 123 cm. Germany. 16th century
The reverse of the painting bears an inscription by L.C. Pfandzelt

А.F. Mitrokhin was the first Russian restorer to master the technique of panel painting transfer. In 1801 ‘he took upon himself the task of bringing paintings back to a normal condition; from 1808 onwards he searched for possible ways of painting transfer from a wooden support to canvas. By 1817 he succeeded in achieving his goal.’ (Archives of the State Hermitage Museum, 1817, f. II, doc. 214, sheet 1). ‘Roman Charity (Cimon and Pero)’ by Rubens is among the numerous paintings transferred by him to canvas.

One of А.F. Mitrokhin’s pupils, F. Tabuntsov, was the most successful in this field and the first Russian master acclaimed in the European literature on the history of restoration. It was he who headed the restoration workshop at the Imperial Hermitage Museum over a period of 15 years. ‘Abraham’s Sacrifice’, ‘The Holy Family’ by Rembrandt and ‘Tancred and Erminia’ by Poussin are among the 176 paintings transferred by him.

Nicolas Poussin
Tancred and Erminia
Oil on canvas
France. Late 1620s - early1630s .

The profound interest in applying oil ground displayed by the painters since early 19th century was echoed by the restorers. From the middle of the 19th century they started to fully remove the original ground layer by replacing it with new oil ground. In the process of the transfer of paintings, the losses of the original paint layer and the replacement of the original support and ground with new heterogeneous material broke the unity and harmony of the whole monument’s structure. This often involved a series of negative effects (especially under temperature and humidity conditions), such as a poor connection of the original paint layer with a new ground layer and support, the emergence of relief cracks in oil ground, which in their turn caused cracks in the original paint layer. If the new ground was badly prepared or applied, it could cause small and coarse granular deformations over the entire surface of a painting. Over time the new thin canvas darkened and dried due to the oil, which formed part of the new ground layer. However, the ability to transfer paint from one base to another testified to the restorer’s superb artistic skills and was financially rewarding. Therefore, the desire to realize one's professional ambitions coupled with financial reward, in due time became at odds with the actual need for performing such a dangerous operation, especially in the case of transferring a painting from canvas to canvas.

The second half of the 19th century in particular (when the Sidorov dynasty members – brothers Nikolai, Ivan, Aleksandr and Mikhail, their children and nephews – worked in the Imperial Hermitage Museum) witnessed numerous examples of panel painting transfers. It was Aleksandr Sidorovich Sidorov, the most celebrated and recognized master, who was awarded a gold medal for the transfer of Raphael’s painting ‘The Conestabile Madonna’ from wood to canvas.

The brothers Sidorov: Nikolai, Aleksandr and Mikhail

Raphael Santi
The Madonna and Child (The Conestabile Madonna)
Oil on canvas, transferred from panel, tempera
Circa 1504

Despite all the negative effects of painting transfers, we should express gratitude to our colleagues the predecessors, who sought ways and means of saving paintings from damage and sometimes imminent ruin. This is particularly true for panel paintings. They are sooner, easier and more often subject to decay due to poor storage conditions, temperature and humidity changes , the influence of wood fretters, which can turn wood into rot causing the original paint layer to be stripped of its base and to literally fall into the holes formed there.

The development of the new techniques aimed at strengthening paint and ground layers, combined with the active efforts of artistic intellectuals, in particular of S.P. Yaremich and S.P. Benua, who saw the danger of performing this operation and took a tough line towards it, made it possible to abandon the transfer of paintings in the museum restoration practice by the 30s of the 20th century.