Leslie Carlyle

Universidade NOVA de Lisboa | NOVA · Department of Conservation & Restoration, Faculty of Sciences and Technology

A new Pigmented Wax-Resin (PWR) formulation for infilling and reintegration of losses in paintings is introduced and tested for its suitability and stability. It consists of a mixture of Cosmoloid H80 microcrystalline wax and Regalrez 1126 hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin with dry pigments and/or fillers. Unlike other PWR formulations, including thos...

Bitumen Cracking" describes an extreme paint defect which affects many 19th century oil paintings and was thought to be the result of employing bitumen or asphalt. The British colourman Winsor & Newton's (W&N) 19th-century archive contains 24 production records for their "Bitumen for Oil Tubes". While recipes for bitumen/asphaltum brown were publis...

Bitumen brown oil paint reconstructions based on 19th century production records from the British colourman Winsor & Newton were analysed using thermally assisted methylation with tetramethylammonium hydroxide (Py-TMAH-GC/MS), and pyrolysis- comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (Py-GCxGC/MS). Reconstructions were compared with the start...

Gelled mediums were widely used during the nineteenth century, added to paint on the palette to modify its rheological, optical, and drying properties. Many variations of gelled mediums exist in the literature, all with the common basis of mastic resin or varnish, drying oil, and a lead compound. With the aim of unveiling the chemistry of such syst...

Natural deep eutectic solvents (NADESs) are considered as green solvents, and due to their promising sustainability, they have been applied in many research fields. In this study, the main goal is to use various NADES systems to replace the traditional solvents used in conservation and restoration to remove varnish layers in a painting. The toxicit...

A new pigmented wax-resin formulation introduced and tested for its suitability as a material to infill and reintegrate losses in paintings. This formulation contains Cosmoloid H80 microcrystalline wax and Regalrez® 1126 hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin, in a ratio of 1.5:1 (wax:resin, parts by weight), and is mixed with dry pigments and/or inert fil...

Performative methods are playing an increasingly prominent role in research into historical production processes, materials, bodily knowledge and sensory skills, and in forms of education and public engagement in classrooms and museums. This book offers, for the first time, sustained, interdisciplinary reflections on performative methods, variously...

The Winsor & Newton Archive Database is a unique primary resource, now available in a Researchers' Edition. It comprises a computer-based indexing system with digitalized page-images of 85 handwritten books (15,003 pages) detailing manufacturing practices and recipes for 19 th century artists' materials. This paper discusses how the database has be...

This paper discusses the concept of historical accuracy in the preparation of oil and oil paint reconstructions. Explored during a MOLART Fellowship and the HART Project (2002-2005), the model relies on documentary research to identify historical instructions and recipes, followed by sourcing materials appropriate to the time of the recipes. The te...

Pigment manufacture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has largely been intended for industrial applications. The very small and specialised artist’s materials market relies on these industrially produced pigments. Improvements to enhance pigment performance in industry have led to the use of a variety of inorganic or organic surface treat...

Lead white is a man-made white pigment commonly used in works of art. In this study, the possibility of radiocarbon dating lead white pigments alone and in oil paints was explored using well-dated lead white pigments and paints. Resulting ¹⁴ C ages on lead white pigments produced following the traditional stack process, where carbonate groups resul...

O Ecomuseu Municipal do Seixal pretende exibir três retratos a óleo sobre tela do século XIX, pertencentes ao seu espólio, num dos seus núcleos museológicos, o Moinho de Maré de Corroios. Em virtude da sua localização, inerente à função de moinho de maré, este edifício exibe condições ambientais que se caracterizam por fortes flutuações de temperat...

By means of synchrotron based techniques, we propose an integrated mechanism for the degradation of 19th century chrome yellow oil paints based on pigment reconstructions from historical recipes. We show that for certain paint formulations the darkening of these colours is triggered by the binder photodegradation which leads to the formation of cal...

This paper presents the results of an integrated study of documentary evidence on the use of pigments in 19th- century oil painting in Portugal and the results of technical studies into pigment use by important Portuguese painters. New research based on archival documents from the period provides much-needed contextual information on the availabili...

In this research about painting on copper technology, 18 historical sources, covering six different languages, dated from the 17th and 18th centuries were collected, allowing to systematise most information about materials and techniques applied on these sorts of paintings. Twelve paintings from the same period mentioned above were studied and comp...

Paintings on copper were mostly produced from the 16th century until the end of the 17th century. Nevertheless, its production never ceased completely, and examples can be found in the 20th century. This study encompassed two complementary sources of information: historical documentary research, on sources from the 17th and18th centuries; and analy...

The Winsor & NewtonTM (W&N) nineteenth century archive database includes digitised images of hand-written instructions and workshop notes for the manufacture of their artists’ materials. For the first time, all 183 production records for yellow lead chromate pigments were studied and evaluated. They revealed that W&N produced essentially three pigm...

A multi-analytical approach for the study of brazilwood and its lake pigments was carried out based on historically accurate reconstructions. Recipes for brazilwood lakes from the fifteenth century technical text Livro de como se fazem as cores and the Winsor & Newton nineteenth century colourman's archive were reproduced and compared. Both primary...

Landscape with apple trees in blossom and peasant woman (c.1881-93) and Beach at Póvoa de Varzim (1881) are two oil paintings on panel by the Portuguese artist Silva Porto (1850-1893). Both paintings exhibit paint losses revealing the underlying wood where crumbled ground residue surrounds worm-like raised lines of zinc soap following the wood grai...

Landscape with apple trees in blossom and peasant woman (c.1881-93) and Beach at Póvoa de Varzim (1881) are two oil paintings on panel by the Portuguese artist Silva Porto (1850-1893). Both paintings exhibit paint losses revealing the underlying wood where crumbled ground residue surrounds worm-like raised lines of zinc soap following the wood grai...

This work introduces the complementary use of μ-Raman and μ-Fourier transform infrared (IR) spectroscopy for the detection of specific carbon chains and cations for the identification of metal carboxylates within oil paint microsamples. Metal carboxylates (metal soaps) form naturally when free fatty acids react with metal cations and may also be foun...

In 1844, the Portuguese Romantic painter Tomás da Anunciação (1818-1879) headed a rebellion against academic training at the Academy of Fine Arts where landscape paintings were all executed in the studio [1]. While this was held to inspire Romantic painting en plein air, documentary evidence shows that the studio continued to be the primary place w...

This paper presents an analytical investigation of paint reconstructions prepared with linseed oil that have undergone typical 19th century treatments in preparation for painting. The oil was mechanically extracted from the same seed lot, which was then processed by various methods: water washing, heat treatments, and the addition of driers, with a...

This article presents a multi-analytical approach to investigating the drying, polymerisation and oxidative degradation of linseed oil, which had undergone various treatments known to be undertaken during the nineteenth century in preparation for painting. The oil was mechanically extracted from the same seed lot then processed by different methods...

To understand the reported degradation of chrome yellows, popular with artists since their introduction in the 19th century, it is necessary to understand the pigment formulation as produced at that time. Chromium-based pigments such as lead chromate (PbCrO4, chrome yellow) or zinc chromate (K2O·4ZnCrO4·3H2O, zinc yellow), as used by Van Gogh and S...

Colour measurements are presented for a set of historically accurate paint reconstructions based on linseed oil pre-processed using various historical recipes, modern lead white, and paint mediums. Colour changes in response to dark/light cycling were reported previously when the samples were fresh. Measurements on the now 10-year-old samples are d...

We have investigated the potential of utilizing analytical electron microscopy to quantitatively examine the grounds used by van Gogh and, in particular, the absolute amount of extender employed. To determine the accuracy that can be achieved, a series of oil paint reconstructions were used as standards. The proportion of extender was measured usin...

A series of historically accurate oil paint reconstructions have been examined with SEM/EDX. The proportion of extender was measured using standardless analysis of the EDX data. The relative error was 10% or better. The same method has been used to determine the ground composition of real samples from Van Gogh paintings. In addition to compositiona...

Different oil processing methods were performed, which included washing with water and treatment with lead-based driers, with and without heating to different temperatures, giving a set of 7 oils to be investigated. The effects of the traditional processing methods of linseed oil on its triacylglycerol (TAG) composition were studied, using the foll...

Information on artists' oil paint driers was gathered from sources published in Britain from 1758 to 1900. The sources included oil painting instruction books, varnish or pigment manuals, compendiums of the arts, and encyclopedias and dictionaries on arts and manufactures. A number of American texts from the 19th century were included as well. In a...

Information on artists' oil paint driers was gathered from sources published in Britain from 1758 to 1900. The sources included oil painting instruction books, varnish or pigment manuals, compendiums of the arts, and encyclopedias and dictionaries on arts and manufactures. A number of American texts from the 19th century were included as well. In a...

Megilp was made by combining a lead-treated drying oil with a mastic varnish and adding the product to paint on the palette, to make a thixotropic medium. Various forms of megilp were used by many artists from the mid-eighteenth to the nineteenth century, both for impasto and for glazing, but undesirable properties of darkening and cracking were so...

Documentary research into English artists’ manuals of 1800–1900 has been carried out to shed light on available materials and recommended practices for painting in the nineteenth century. Knowledge of typical practices and the use of new materials is as important as knowledge of their first date of availability. Adulteration of colours and substitu...

Documentary sources from the 18th and 19th century indicate that the practice of adulterating consumer goods was widespread. Ample evidence in artists’ manuals, treatises and handbooks as well as contemporary encyclopedias exists to suggest that artists’ materials were not exempt from such fraudulent practices. Pigments, oil, and resins were all re...

This paper provides an outline of resinous or solvent-sensitive vehicles, varnishes and application techniques which were recommended by authors of oil painting instruction manuals published in Britain during the nineteenth century. Attention is given to aspects of these recommendations which, were they implemented, would be particularly relevant t...

Analytical electron microscopy is an important technique for the examination of historical artefacts [1], [2], [3], [4]. In this paper we have used analytical electron microscopy to study the composition of the double grounds used by Van Gogh. At the time Van Gogh was painting, he was relying primarily on commercially prepared grounds about which v...