Before and after
Before and after pictures of cleaning artworks
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Before and after: repairing water damage
Repairing water damage on a piece of hard board
A picture of an oil painting that had suffered because of moisture. Several paintings were stacked on top of each other and a deep crack appeared at the top of the painting. Probably a scratch at first and later moisture getting into that area, causing the fibers swell. I made the crack a bit wide, filled it in with gesso and that retouched all the damaged areas.
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Before and after: cleaning a painting
cleaning off decades of nicotine staining
A very soiled painting from 1955 that was covered in yellow smoke sooth. Details of the paintbrush strokes and subtle color differences were totally invisible until the piece was cleaned with home made cleaning gel as you can see applied on the right.
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Before and after: bouquet
Before and after photo of a cleaned oil painting by Leonora van Bijsterveld
An oil painting that looks ‘faded’. The lacquer cracked in minuscule pieces, causing the light to fracture, creating that washed out appearance. The problem could have been created when the oil painting did not dried long enough and applying lacquer too soon after the painting was made.
The problem was instantly fixed when the old lacquer was removed and a new layer was applied, resulting in a beautiful fresh looking painting.
Sold, Hulstein Antiques 2021
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Before and after: woodblock 1930’s
Cleaning a woodblock print from acids, Remiens 1930
I cleaned this Art Deco woodcut print made by the Dutch architect and artist Remiens. This woodcut also had some thicker ink layers that displayed a different elasticity than the paper. This resulted in some waving of the paper. I had to repeat the process of wetting and drying the paper several times to reach the final result.
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Before and after: woodcut 1950
Cleaning a big panoramic wood cut print by Han Krug
This was a fun job but at times also a challenging task. I peeled the paper inch by inch from the board on which it was glued. The wet paper was brittle and had to be handled with the necessary care. I used denatured water to relax the paper as fast as possible, using a sharp scalpel knife to remove the backboard. As expected, some pieces came off easily and some pieces were nerve wracking to remove.
After this the print was washed and pressed. This print had some thicker layers of ink, almost latex like, that had a different elasticity then the paper. This resulted in waving so I had to repeat the wetting and pressing of the paper until the final result was achieved. A new fresh looking wooden frame was used to protect the cheerful piece as well as a new piece of glass and a protective matte
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Before and after: cleaning a lithograph
cleaning of a print
This is a lithographic print by B Bokhorst. It was pressed on woodpulp rich, modern paper. This paper tends to yellow fairly quickly. With yellowing and high acidity comes brittleness of the paper so it’s best to clean this paper to be able to preserve it. Before the wash I sprayed the plate with some denatured water and 3 percent bioethanol. The ethanol penetrates the paper much faster than water which prevents the tearing of the paper fibers on a microscopic level
I washed the print in a solution of denatured water and some calcium hydroxide. and after drying and pressing the plate I mended some folds with Kozo paper and purified wheat starch glue. I filled in small damages and missing color with pencils. Since the litho closely resembles a pencil drawing it seemed like the right choice.
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Before and after: sunny garden by H. v. Bloem
I Cleaned this 19th century painting from the Dutch artist Bloem. This is the ‘After and before cleaning’ situation. I removed the old lacquer and applied a new protective layer of lacquer. Aside from cleaning this piece was in a great shape and did not need much work.
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Before and after: cleaning an early 19th century painting
The fractured lacquer of this 19th century painting was removed, damages were repaired and minor retouch work was done. More information is found here
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Before and after: Cleaning a 19th century painting
Cleaned oil painting 19th century, by H.W Eckhardt. Cleaned the yellow lacquer and made small repairs to the linen and frame.
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Before and after: oil painting by Alfred Jörg
Cleaning an oil painting 1930’s by Alfred Jörg. Removed the yellow lacquer and retouched minor damages.
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Before and after: pastel by E. Jeska
This pastel crayon drawing by Ed Jeska encountered some water damage resulting in tide lines.
An in depth report of the procedure can be found here -
Before and after: painting M Schiestl
Cleaned this oil painting after Matheus Schiestl 1915. The canvas was cleaned with a solvent gel to reveal the original vibrant colors. It was quite the task because of the size of this painting.
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Before and after: woodcut print by Rol
“Cactus”, woodcut print on modern, pulp rich paper by Cornelis Rol, part of the 1931 “Verkade” Album “Cactussen”, page 61.
The paper was cleaned from acids and pressed several times because the black paint was thick and of a different elasticity then the paper which resulted in rippling.
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Before and after: Arie Jaarsveld
Cleaning a panoramic painting from smoke damage
An Arie Jaarsveld painting that I cleaned. It was cleaned from the yellow lacquer, and small damages were retouched.
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Before and after: oil painting with owl
This wonderful Dutch oil painting had some holes in the canvas. These were mended with Kozo paper and a starch based glue. Gesso was used to fill up these holes and level up to the paint. It could then be retouched and reframed in a custom made frame.
Small holes mended, reframed -
Before and after: antique painting with flowers
This is a lovely little oil painting made by a relatively unknown female artist named van Bueren. The painting suffered from paint loss. I cleaned the surface, filled in the missing paint with gesso over the course of a few days so I could build up the gesso to match the painted areas. I need less than an millimeter but it literally has to add up to make the restore job as unnoticeable as possible. After the procedure, the piece was laquered.
Oil painting by van Bueren on painters board, some paint loss occurred. 
Before and after 
The end result -
Before and after: oil painting on wood.
Before and after: Bernhard, oil on wooden panel. 
A big chunk of the paint on the roof was chipped, leaving a deep gap behind. This is an oil painting on a piece of wooden board. The wood was exposed to moisture and horizontal cracks started to appear, in line with the grain of the pressed wood. Some cracks were a bit wider, even causing the paint to flake around the roof area.
Firstly, the work was cleaned. After that, I filled in the missing paint around the roof area with a gesso chalk mix. I layered the mix until the desired thickness was accomplished. Then I painted over the gesso mix with acrylic paint. I also filled in some of the horizontal cracquele and sealed it by giving the piece a mat new lacquer, keeping the paint sealed and the painting protected.
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Before and after: Impressionist still life with fish
Cleaned and applied a new lining, reframed This is a lovely piece of art made by Micha Landt. She made it during the Second World War when there was a shortage in food.
The canvas of this oil painting was in a rough shape, to be honest I have never seen it that bad. It was torn and rippled around the edges. I had to mount the piece onto a new piece of canvas because there was no other way to reapply the canvas to its stretcher.
I glued the canvas on a new piece of canvas with the help of weights and heat activated glue. I then could clean the painting and give it a new layer of lacquer. A new frame was used to complete this neat piece of art by Micha Landt in 1943. -
Before and after: cleaning a dress
This is a gorgeous, large, almost antique German painting, that had to take a lot of damage and was treated wrongly. It even had some holes near the corners from pins that were used to hang it or pin it against the wall. The piece is somewhat of a sensitive artwork because it breathes ‘nazi art’ .
The smoke residue was cleaned for as far as I could get it off.. Her face, mainly her cheeks, show some craquelé that I did not find troubling enough to restore. It did not meddle with her face in color or appearance. However, no one likes to see a powder blue shiffon dress looking as filthy as it did. That was in short the train of thought that led to this decision.Perhaps the painting was placed above a smoking chair or near a fire place. After intensive cleaning and some retouching, the painting looks fresh again. It was framed in a new frame and is up for sale, inquiries here
before and after cleaning Applying a gel made of Carbopol in which solvents can be dissolved. In this case Ammonia. Ammonia works great in removing the yellow lacquer with soiling. The Ammonia is heavily diluted. Here you can see that I have applied it on the yellow patches on the dress. It takes some time to do its job.
The intensive cleaning process
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Before and after: bucket oil painting with paintloss
This wonderful minimal painting by Meuldijk had missing paint and some scratches on the paint. I forgot to make extensive photo’s but manage to take this picture where you can see the gesso applied to the painting. The painting was later retouched and relacquered.
Removed the loose parts, filled in with chalk gesso mixture and retouched.
