The restoration of this double-sided painting required a lot of precision and patience. An old painting’s canvas was used by the artist to paint a landscape on the opposite side. After an initial investigation, the main focus of the research was shifted to the backside of the painting in order to remove black crayon and uncover three hidden figures.

Both sides of the painting before the treatment.

At first, the facial features of the characters were indistinguishable, but after several iterations of removing the black stains with a solvent, more and more details began to emerge.

More adherent remains of the black overpainting, that were trapped within the textures of the brushstrokes, had to be gently removed using a scalpel.

The composition after the restoration processes - all figures are uncovered.

Double-sided Painting