It is common to find all kinds of odd attempts at restoration on older paintings and these blog entries have highlighted quite a few of them, but it is quite unusual to find any sort of patch applied to the top of a painting as opposed to the reverse side of the canvas. I have yet to determine just what this is lying on top of the paint surface here, and in fact, the reverse side does not show any significant damage to the canvas that indicates that it would have needed much of a patch. I have been able to remove some of the surrounding overpaint in order to uncover the original, but the material comprising the “patch” has so far not shown itself to be easily reversed. If it were paper as I had originally surmised, then any moisture should begin to degrade it -- but that is not the case here, at least not so far, and so I will try a different tact. This is yet another example of why any restorer’s knowledge of materials and their reversibility is so key, and why documentation is of utmost importance.

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