From faded grandeur to glorious colour – it truly is a delight when we can rescue a picture from what has become a steady decline and put it back to the condition intended by the artist. Sunlight might be a welcome change in our weather lately, but it can cause horrible damage to works of art. One of the projects we have recently completed has involved putting the zing back into an old engraving which had lost its mojo in a major way. We have at our disposal a brand of  pictorial wizardry: retouched art enhancement thanks to the marvelous Jim Holden, photographer extraordinaire.

Jim was enthusiastic about this particular challenge – an antique hunting engraving which had lost nearly all its original colour. Tasked with delicately retouching the photographic copy he made, Jim got busy (and thoroughly absorbed) in bringing the horses, horsemen, dogs and scenery back to life. It was a time-consuming and fiddly exercise, as he had to hand ‘paint’ the colour onto the digital master copy, and find the right balance between correct tinting and over-colouring, so that the antiquity of the piece was respected.

The original faded engraving and the new and improved version...

The original faded engraving and the new and improved version…

This involved finding similar works by the artist online, and comparing the use of colour and degree of fading over time. Jim and I both found some badly reworked examples, which at least gave us a good idea of what not to do in this instance. With a picture as old as this one, it is important to maintain the integrity of the artwork, and bright, modern colours would not ‘do’, as they would appear over-gaudy and too new. Jim made sure he opted for a slightly muted palette, but one that brought the figures in the picture back to life.

The new and improved scene back in it's frame...

The new and improved engraving back in it’s frame with new glass!

I consider he’s done a cracking job, and I know the owner will be delighted with the finished result. The original engraving is safely tucked behind the new version, protected from further degradation by light, and the entire work has been put behind museum quality glass (99% UV protective Artglass), so when it hangs in the bright, light-filled room where it will now live, it will keep its vibrancy forever – in spite of long, sunny summer days in the years to come.

Tilly