Restoring an Abandoned Portrait Painting - Part 3 The Regency Gent

Enchanté, je suis James. Monsieur, du café s'il vous plaît. As you can see, I've been brushing up on my French skills using Babbel in my lunch hour. It's been great just to get through some episodes, some lessons. About 10 or 15 minutes each day working through the programme. It's been really helpful. I'm trying to get a trip over to France to see some fantastic artwork, hopefully later on in the year. But I'll just show you how quick and easy it is to use. So here it is. Pardon? Vous êtes Marion? Enchanté, enchanté. Enchanté, je suis Marc. Enchanté. Pardon? Vous êtes Marion? Oui, c'est moi. Enchanté, je suis Marc. Enchanté, je suis James. Vous buvez un café avec moi? Vous buvez un café avec moi? Oui, bien sûr, avec plaisir. Monsieur, du café s'il vous plaît. So, as you can see, dead easy to use, dead straightforward. I've been doing it most lunch times just to try and work through and brush up on some skills. Click the description. There's a 60% off if you click the link below. And that will give you 60% off your subscription with Babbel. So yeah, give it a go and brush up on your skills. Right, let's get back to the Regency jet now. OK. Thanks for all your comments. It was nice to get some positive feedback on that. I've got some really interesting ones there about his hairstyle, about the jacket that he's wearing and stuff. So we're going to carry on today. We're going to get a look at the rest of the background. I'm going to start removing that top section from there. And then we're going to have a look at his cravat area and his jacket and see what that reveals like. And hopefully by the end of the episode, we will be completely clean with him. And then we can start the structural work and putting him back together. So yeah, let's get started. So here's the recap of how he arrived. And I said I'd never tire of seeing this. And here's the transformation of the cleaning we did last time. So you can see the difference. Still got that section in the top left to do. So that's where I'm going to start today. So this area is still completely filthy, completely dirty. I'm just going to tackle that top section. You can still see in his hair, there's lots of residue left as well. I had some interesting comments about his hair. It seems this is the Brutus style that was made popular by Beau Brummel. It seems that there was a scarcity of flour in 1795. And William Pitt attempted to raise revenue through a hair powder tax. So this kind of brought the fashion for wigs and powder to a screeching halt. And men protested this with a new, more natural hairstyle, which became fashionable. So this could well be more of a Brutus style, which was used with a lot of hair wax and things to kind of get the look just right. These hairstyles took a great deal of time and patience to achieve. Men used an oil or pomade made of bear fat to achieve a natural, tamed wildness. Scented pomades were called pomade de Niro and pomade de Graffa. And since hair was rarely washed, nightcaps were worn to prevent soiling pillows and doilies protecting the back of chairs. So I don't know if that's better than a powdered wig or not, but this gentleman certainly has that kind of curly, windswept look. Very Heathcliff. One of my favourite comments from the last video was that he looks more Mr Darcy now than Mr Bumble. And I thought that was quite true. This is a very Mr Darcy kind of hairstyle too. The name Bo Brummel came up quite a lot as well. Bo Brummel was a bit of a dandy and a very fashionable person in the 18th century. He had a friendship with the Prince Regent and became a noted figure in fashion and adopted a habit of dress that rejected overly ornate clothes in favour of understated but perfectly fitted and tailored bespoke garments. His daily dress was similar to that of other gentlemen in his time, based upon dark coats and full length trousers, but above all Brummel favoured immaculate shirt linen and an elaborately knotted cravat. And this mode of cravat wearing has been described as Brummel's chief innovation. So I'll talk a little bit more about that later on as we progress with the clean. But again, I'm making progress in this sky area and removing lots of that dirt and overpaint that's just sat on there. I mentioned in the last episode that I wasn't sure whether this was dirt or paint, and I'm still not 100%, but it is such a uniform colour. You wouldn't surprise me if Mr John Williamson did decide just to paint over the whole background as well. I mean, why not? He painted the whole face and everything else, so he may well have covered the whole background to keep it more in keeping with a Victorian aesthetic. So again, not too sure on exactly what I'm removing here, but it does have that consistency of soot and dirt and grime. But again, the colour could well be a layer of paint as well, maybe both. On this section of the painting you can see how that residue was dried. This does make it easy to see what I'm removing. That mucky brown-grey is just kind of everywhere on the background. So again, just the same mixture that I've used on the whole painting. Just keep working areas around. There are some areas of stubborn overpaint, like this section here, that is just fused to the paint layer. This may remove mechanically later on, or I may be able to just kind of strengthen that mixture and tackle that area. It is quite stiff in parts and quite stuck to the paint surface. So I'm just going to carry on removing this section here, coming all the way around. You can see this jacket there where I've already touched on there, there is a bit of colour coming through there, which you can see, but I'll talk a little bit more about that later on. Back to Bo Brummel though, it seems he took a house on Chesterfield Street in Mayfair and for a time managed to avoid the nightly gaming and other extravagances frequent in such elevated circles. But where he refused to economise was on his dress, and when asked how much it would cost to keep a single man in clothes, he was said to have replied, Now this was at a time when the average annual wage for a craftsman was £52 a year. Additionally, he claimed that he took five hours a day to dress and recommended that boots be polished with champagne. This preoccupation with dress, coupled with a nonchalant display of wit, was referred to as dandyism. His personal habits, such as a fastidious attention to cleaning his teeth, shaving and daily bathing, exerted an influence on the upper echelons of polite society. He began to do likewise. Enthralled, the prince would spend hours in Brummel's dressing room, witnessing the progress of his friend's lengthy morning toilette. So this person, Bo Brummel, had quite an effect on society, from the way people looked, the way they dressed, and had quite a bit of influence. I don't know whether he really did clean his boots with champagne, it's something that I might need to try. Maybe I could clean a painting with champagne and see if that had any desired effect. But certainly this gentleman is wearing the correct garments of that period, and definitely was influenced by this character. So again, I'm just working my way across this background, removing those dirt and grime layers, seeing that colour come through of the sky. And then these are very kind of romantic clouds in the background, so some of this colour will be the colour of the clouds as it travels further behind him. I'm just looking forward to getting to work on his coat. I've got some information on what colour it may be, and what kind of coat it is. So yeah, I can't wait to move on to that, and see what we find underneath all this dirt and grime. So on his jacket you can see there's a pitted area that looks like some kind of mould growth or something. I think this is just stuff that's settled on the paint surface, almost on top of that dirt layer. So as I'm cleaning, you'll see some sections where it just seems to waltz off, and looks very loose, and is getting absorbed by the swab. But then there's other bits on the jacket that do look like this kind of mould growth, but I think this is just like accumulations or detritus that's settled on the paint surface. So I need to just have a bit of a closer look at that, and just decide which layer is which. It's a bit like the Moonland in this, as I try to navigate to look through the lens. So you can see the blue of the jacket there. Then there's a softer milky brown dirt layer that I've been removing. And then them kind of almost golden flecks on top, they seem to be some kind of growth or residue, or something that's settled on the paint surface that's on top of the dirt layer. So that's what I'm looking to remove. Right, I'm just going to show you where we're up to now. So I've done a lot more of that background, as you can see. My pointy stick's gone. This is a dark cloud, and I've got these highlights here. Still some areas that I'm going to have to try and remove. It's very thinly painted, the background. It's quite wispy. And again here, I've took a lot more of this area off here, but again, thinly painted. And I think this section does come down to brown here. It is kind of a browny, murky kind of colour, but there's still dirt to come off there. And the same on this side here. I've got back to this blue, which is nice. These white specks, I don't know if they're paint or if there's something else resting on there. And then again, down here, still quite murky. I've not looked at his cravat too much yet. I do think that's overpainted. Could be wrong. And then I need to look at his jacket. As we saw earlier, there's residue on top of this jacket. That's a bit of an impact. But I think this should come through a nice colour as well. So he's getting there. Still a few little bits on top here that might need a bit of undress. We can see here, I think this is where he was over-cleaned. And maybe that's why he retouched so much on the top. But yeah, he's getting there. Still lots to do. I'm going to have a look at his jacket now, see what happens here. Okay, I lied. I wanted to get onto this cravat. I can see that as I start cleaning here, my swab is taking on a creamy ochre, almost like a Naples yellow kind of tone to it. And just at the top of his collar, I can see the original paint coming through. And you'll see the swab starts to get darker. So that section there, I can just see that that's overpaint. So he has had a go at this as well, and he's painted the whole cravat, and possibly over the yellow collar as well. So I'm just having to be a little bit aggressive here with my swab because this paint is so thick. It's almost fused to the bottom paint layer. So I'm having to put a little bit of pressure on there just to kind of get this paint to soften. So it might take a few attempts to reveal that cravat. The stock cravat was a simple two-yard long, thin piece of creamy, fine white linen that was starched. It was wound around the neck of the wearer, almost covering the shirt's pointed collar, which was upturned on a level with the wearer's jaw. So we've got that there. This was then crossed over, wrapped around the neck again, and knotted in the front by a small bow. The loose ends were gathered into a series of folded waterfall pleats, all held in place with a long silver or gold stock pin, and the ends carefully tucked into the top of the colourful and heavily embroidered waistcoat, always worn under the coat. So that's the yellow we can see here. That's the waistcoat. Apparently, this was such a complicated procedure, it took at least four or five goes to get it right, and many stocks were cast aside to be re-starched for the next day before one considered tied properly and good enough to wear out. Only when the stock cravat was tied properly would the jacket be put on. The style of this was extremely flattering to men, as long as with the high shirt collar. It held the head up and framed the face. It was first created and worn by Brummel, and was then copied and made popular by the Prince of Wales throughout his life, first when he became Prince Regent, then finally King George IV in 1819. He eagerly seized upon it as it disguised his increasing double chin as he began piling on the weight, which he continued to do so for the rest of his life, ending up morbidly obese at around 26 stone. So here you can see it back onto the cravat now. You can see the white that's coming through the original paint, and the folds and the pleats are similar, but a little bit more finesse, and the paint is applied a little bit more lightly than Mr. Williamson had done. You can still see that swab is absorbing an awful lot of paint as we go. There's a famous story that Beau Brummel called on the young Prince of Wales at his then home, Carlton House, early one morning, and as he arrived in the hall below he heard the Prince howling, cursing, crying and sobbing, which was obviously coming from his bedroom. Suddenly a valet appeared running down the stairs carrying armfuls of creased linen stock cravats. A surprised Brummel asked him what was going on. The valet replied wearily, It's the stocks Mr. Brummel, he just can't get them right. Looking down at the 20 or so creased cravats, the valet continued and these sir are our failures. At this point Brummel ran up the stairs and straight into the Prince's room unannounced. He snatched the crisp material from the Prince's hands, told him to turn round and in less than a minute tied a perfect stock cravat. He then helped the Prince put on his jacket saying, Now sir, dry your tears, otherwise we will be late for the races. After this the Prince got the hang of tying it and a Regency fashion item was born that eventually developed into the modern men's tie. So a lot of history about the cravats, again Beau Brummel's name popping up, but you can see here now there's still a few little bits of residue left on there that I need to remove, but I'm really pleased with the progress here and actually getting to the original paint. I think you can agree that it's a lot brighter and a lot better painted than Mr. Williamson's version. Brummel put into practice the principles of harmony, harmony of shape and contrast of colours and such a pleasing result that the men of superior ranks sought his opinion on their own dress. The Duke of Bedford once did this, touching a coat. Brummel examined his grace with a cool impertinence which was his grace's due. He turned him about, scanned him, and with scrutinising contemptuous eye and then taking the label between his dainty finger and thumb he exclaimed in a tone of pitying wonder, Bedford, do you call this thing a cunt? I quite like the character of Brummel. He seems very much his own man and didn't really care too much for rank. He certainly moved through the ranks without giving too much of a damn. Just caught a tiny little bit of paint there just as I was brushing over that section you can see, let me zoom in, there it is, just a little bit there that little spot there just caught on the swab. As you can see I just lost a bit of paint there so it was quite thick on that cravat and as I was just cleaning around sometimes a cotton wool can just grab underneath and if it grabs underneath and just lifts it's just going to take that paint away so I've been very lucky so far this painting, even though it is in poor condition the paint surface has held very well for some kind of aggressive cleaning that we've done so even though it's only a tiny little piece I'm a little bit annoyed about that but it will just get filled in and there are other losses on the painting but whenever you do it yourself and you know you've done it it's upsetting. But it's part of it it's a tiny little piece I'll fill that, no one will be along the wiser apart from you guys but it does happen especially when it's a loose especially when it's kind of an aggressive clean I'm cleaning aggressively here I'm doing my best for the Regency Gent and some of this paint on this cravat is so thick and I was enjoying that so much he was so cleaning like I knew he would I knew it would come off I knew it would be clean under there and I was excited to see that cravat and then just that little loss has kind of annoyed me but it is part of it and don't get me wrong it happens, it does happen so sorry about that Mr Gent but I'm going to carry on now because I have to get to see what is underneath that dirt on the coat I believe it's going to be a blue colour it looks like there's a blue tint I've had hints from many not many, I've had hints from my good friend and client who has done some research and thinks it will be a blue jacket maybe I mentioned that earlier or I'll talk about it but yeah anyway, onwards so I'm just going to start have a look at this coat now which I've been informed that it's a 19th century or an early 19th century cutaway jacket with a slightly gathered roof shoulders on the sleeves and a high collar all probably made from a fine dark blue silk velvet now as that muck is coming off you can see that dark blue the richness appear underneath all that dirt as it just kind of waltzes off there with my swab so this jacket was made fashionable again by the Prince Regent around 1800 to 1803 and lasted in many forms until the early Victorian times although this one does appear to be one of the early forms I've also had some fantastic information as well about how the colours of how you dressed often denoted your politics so for instance those of you who followed the politician and opposition leader Charles James Fox who was a member of the Whig Party later renamed the Liberal Party always wore buff yellow coloured waistcoats with high collars and dark blue jackets these waistcoats were either plain buff yellow silk or else very highly worked elaborate silk and metallic threaded creations depicting Greek or Roman style patterns again this ties in with the hair the Brutus style hair or the Caesar hair the historic colours of the rosettes of Liberal Party candidates today are still yellowy following this historical precedent the tour is the Conservative Party always wore blue waistcoats with brownish buff jackets with bright blue still being their party colour so if you see some old historical portraits you'd be able to tell what political party they were assigned to just from the clothes that they were wearing so from this it could be concluded that the Regency gent agreeing to be painted wearing these colours so prominently in his apparel was in fact a Whig a Liberal and a supporter of Charles James Fox and through him the Prince of Wales who Fox supported to become Prince Regent when his father George III became Bill in the early 19th century you can see how much dirt is on this jacket look it's just thick and dripping with it so as I'm cleaning I'm softening that dirt and then I'm having to sponge it up with my swab to remove it from the surface you can see the colour of that dirt it's just it's just filthy but those buttons look fantastic I can see the deep blue silk or velvet of his jacket coming through now he is really taking shape he is looking good and I just love I just love that jacket and that buff yellow waistcoat coming through look at this the glamour the glamour of painting restoration absolutely ugh disgusting all that muck ugh anyway gross so just a gentle wipe over now with some mineral spirits this will just kind of neutralise any cleaning agents on there and it allows me to see the colours coming through from what we had so again never tire of seeing this this is how he arrived Mr Bumble and then we've got Mr Darcy appearing there through the dirt look at his cravats and that collar of the waistcoat and now we've got the true colours of the cravat and the waistcoat coming through his lovely velvet jacket is shining and those buttons look splendid okay so that was a bit of a full on session um cravat that was amazing so pleased with that looks so bright um it's a shame that had a little bit of paint loss but it happens to everyone um what else the yellow of that inner waistcoat is really nice you can see the buttons on his double breasted jacket they look really nice um his face is looking good the background's a lot clearer it's quite thinly painted but um I think that's just the way it is really um whether it was overpainted and it has been uh over cleaned at some point who's to know but it again the difference between how it arrived and how it is looking now is incredible so the next step is to have a conversation with the client I think we'll probably line this painting now it needs a bit of structural support and it'll just kind of give it a really good finish um and then once it's lined I'll be looking at filling glosses and retouching um but how he is looking now I'm so pleased with him he looks really good um I hope you've enjoyed that I know there's a lot of cleaning there's a lot to see a lot of muck a lot of dirt has come off but um that's the process and then hopefully next episode we'll start seeing a bit more of the structural work putting it back together um if you enjoyed the video if you've enjoyed the video please like and subscribe um welcome to my new Patreon I've got a few more people signed up last week so thank you for that I appreciate the support and uh other than that um I hope you have a nice day well it's not raining but yeah I am going to call it a day and um I will catch up with you soon so uh once again thanks guys and see you soon bye This looks like it could be something of a signature I'm not sure J S I don't know or an A and this might be like a T or something I don't know with you in the next in my next video bye