The brig 'Cronkbane'
Date made: mid 19th century
Artist: unknown artist
Description: The brig 'Cronkbane' commanded by Captain John Monier, who had great success in merchant vessels in the 19th century such as the brig Philanderer and the brig Cronkbane (so named for the home of his wife's family, the Joughin family of that farm). The log of the Cronkbane 1850-1852 is in MNH archive reference number MS 00096 B.
In December 2023 this painting will go on display in our National Art Gallery at the Manx Museum in a section dedicated to explaining how we conserve our artworks. It came into our collection in a poor state and in the gallery it will have a label explaining how we might fix such damage:
Chris Weeks, Collections Care and Conservation Manager for Manx National Heritage writes:
This is a painting with a good deal of significant and interesting detail. Because the painting does not have a glazed frame it is very dirty! If you look more closely you will see other kinds of damage, too.
The surface of the painting is badly scratched. In addition, it has been exposed to water, causing pale drip-marks, and the canvas is severely distorted where water has swollen the fibres. Canvas is prepared for painting by stretching it on a wooden frame called a stretcher. The canvas of this painting is now so slack on the stretcher that the only remedy will be to attach new canvas to the back and fix it to a new stretcher. This is called re-lining. It is a specialist job.
A UV (ultra violet) photograph of part of the painting shows a big patch of bad re-painting, indicating an old restoration. This would need to be dissolved and scraped away during cleaning. The resulting hole would be filled with gesso and then re-touched to mimic what has been lost.
The cost of conserving and framing this painting by an off-Island specialist would be in the region of £5000.
Measurements: unframed artwork: 69.5 cm x 103 cm
Materials: oil on canvas
Object name: painting
Collection: Art Collection
ID number: 1954-4841
Subject tags : #artgallerydamaged
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