Read Online Restoration by John Ed Bradley - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: John Ed Bradley
Ads: Link
what Patrick said to Elsa at his dinner party, that he was going to be rich? Do you want the painting to make you a lot of money?”
“Money?” And I laughed. “Slow down there, Rhys. Since when did it become mine to sell? Why would you ask me such a question?”
“What if I told you that in some instances a painting on canvas, one that’s been whitewashed, can be restored to its original condition? What would you say to that?”
“I’d say, ‘How nice.’ Or maybe I’d say, ‘Well, I’ll be damned.’ But I don’t think I’d get too worked up about it, if that’s what you want to know.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said. “I think your response would bequite different. I think you’d try to convince me to help you remove the mural from this building. Are you going to propose that, Jack? That the two of us, having discovered it, work out a deal together to save it and place it with a wealthy collector for a king’s ransom?”
“First of all, Rhys, I’m not a thief. And, second, aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself? I really just want to see the thing, if it’s even there. In all likelihood it was removed some time after the authorities forced Levette to paint over it, perhaps during a renovation. Have you considered that? Or that some enterprising collector or dealer came around before we did and got his hands on it? So many things could’ve happened. It’s incredible to believe we’re the only people who know about it.”
“I think we are the only ones,” she said. “Those newspaper stories said the mural was destroyed, and to most people whitewashing an existing painting amounts to destruction. But I’m a restorer. I encounter paint on paint every day, and I remove one layer to get to the next, and it isn’t easy but in many cases it can be done. Remember what the newspaper story said? It said the artist himself whitewashed the painting. Now what does that tell you? I know what it tells me.”
“It tells me he must’ve been one strong, stout-hearted sonofabitch, to cover up what he’d probably spent months working on.”
“Yes, it does say that. But it also says he was a smart man, and a clever man, and maybe even a conniving man. The painting was still new, and so the oils Levette used hadn’t had time to oxidize yet. In other words, the mural’s surface was still wet—the paint was wet. He had to know he couldn’t cover the painting with an oil-based wash because that would’ve made for an irreversible situation. The oils used to paint the picture would’ve cross-linked with the oils used to cover it, essentially making their chemical composition one and the same. You also have to remember that Levette wouldn’t have had time yet to coat the painting with varnish. As a rule you don’t varnish over oil paint for at least nine months after application. So while varnish might’ve offered some protection to the surface from a whitewashing, Levette wouldn’t have been able to go that route.”
“Rhys, you’ve lost me.”
“Okay, let me go at it from a different direction.” She sat up in her seat, raised a finger to her face and pulled at her lip. “What artist in his right mind would volunteer to destroy a painting that he’d just created? None would. But an artist, faced with a mob bent on seeing him punished and ridiculed, might’ve thought of a way to save his painting even while giving the appearance of destroying it.” She was smiling now. “Rather than allow others to round up buckets of oil paint to cover up his painting, and to effectively eliminate any chance of saving it in the future, the artist himself finds a material that doesn’t pose a threat to his painting. He uses something that, quite the contrary, works to
preserve
the painting. He covers it with a material like distemper or casein paint so that it can be restored.”
“Casein and what is the other one?”
“Distemper. Casein and distemper. They’re types of paint, and
“Money?” And I laughed. “Slow down there, Rhys. Since when did it become mine to sell? Why would you ask me such a question?”
“What if I told you that in some instances a painting on canvas, one that’s been whitewashed, can be restored to its original condition? What would you say to that?”
“I’d say, ‘How nice.’ Or maybe I’d say, ‘Well, I’ll be damned.’ But I don’t think I’d get too worked up about it, if that’s what you want to know.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said. “I think your response would bequite different. I think you’d try to convince me to help you remove the mural from this building. Are you going to propose that, Jack? That the two of us, having discovered it, work out a deal together to save it and place it with a wealthy collector for a king’s ransom?”
“First of all, Rhys, I’m not a thief. And, second, aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself? I really just want to see the thing, if it’s even there. In all likelihood it was removed some time after the authorities forced Levette to paint over it, perhaps during a renovation. Have you considered that? Or that some enterprising collector or dealer came around before we did and got his hands on it? So many things could’ve happened. It’s incredible to believe we’re the only people who know about it.”
“I think we are the only ones,” she said. “Those newspaper stories said the mural was destroyed, and to most people whitewashing an existing painting amounts to destruction. But I’m a restorer. I encounter paint on paint every day, and I remove one layer to get to the next, and it isn’t easy but in many cases it can be done. Remember what the newspaper story said? It said the artist himself whitewashed the painting. Now what does that tell you? I know what it tells me.”
“It tells me he must’ve been one strong, stout-hearted sonofabitch, to cover up what he’d probably spent months working on.”
“Yes, it does say that. But it also says he was a smart man, and a clever man, and maybe even a conniving man. The painting was still new, and so the oils Levette used hadn’t had time to oxidize yet. In other words, the mural’s surface was still wet—the paint was wet. He had to know he couldn’t cover the painting with an oil-based wash because that would’ve made for an irreversible situation. The oils used to paint the picture would’ve cross-linked with the oils used to cover it, essentially making their chemical composition one and the same. You also have to remember that Levette wouldn’t have had time yet to coat the painting with varnish. As a rule you don’t varnish over oil paint for at least nine months after application. So while varnish might’ve offered some protection to the surface from a whitewashing, Levette wouldn’t have been able to go that route.”
“Rhys, you’ve lost me.”
“Okay, let me go at it from a different direction.” She sat up in her seat, raised a finger to her face and pulled at her lip. “What artist in his right mind would volunteer to destroy a painting that he’d just created? None would. But an artist, faced with a mob bent on seeing him punished and ridiculed, might’ve thought of a way to save his painting even while giving the appearance of destroying it.” She was smiling now. “Rather than allow others to round up buckets of oil paint to cover up his painting, and to effectively eliminate any chance of saving it in the future, the artist himself finds a material that doesn’t pose a threat to his painting. He uses something that, quite the contrary, works to
preserve
the painting. He covers it with a material like distemper or casein paint so that it can be restored.”
“Casein and what is the other one?”
“Distemper. Casein and distemper. They’re types of paint, and
Similar Books
