Research Summary

A significant number of oil paintings produced during the mid-18th century and 19th century in Europe suffer from film-formation defects that are so severe that some of these paintings can no longer be displayed. Referred to as “Craquelure Anglaise”, “Bitumen Cracking” or “Alligatoring”, the surfaces are characterised by wide drying cracks, primarily in dark passages, leaving paint in isolated islands which themselves can have extremely wrinkled broken surfaces.  Paintings exhibiting this problem are found in collections in locations as far ranging as Britain, France, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Spain, North America and Australia, with no clear understanding of the mechanism which results in these drying problems. This project focuses on the study of this problem on a painting by Marciano Henriques da Silva (1831-1873) which was executed in Rome in 1861 and is currently unexhibitable due to extreme film formation defects. The chemical and physical characterisation of the painting involves a multi-analytical approach which uses a range of complementary methods of analyses. Reconstructions modelled from representative recipes contemporary with the paintings and using historically appropriate materials are being produced to serve as reference materials for comparison with the painting.

PhD Project Title: Craquelure Anglaise: The development of film-formation defects in European 19th century oil paintings leading to paint failure and a loss of image integrity.

Supervisors: Leslie Carlyle (LAQV-Requimte, DCR FCT NOVA, Portugal), Laurence de Viguerie (LAMS, UPMC, CNRS, France), Isabel Pombo Cardoso (LAQV-Requimte, DCR FCT NOVA, Portugal)