Painted Photograph on Canvas

Oil painted enlarged photograph portrait mounted onto canvas, depicting a white male with a predominant moustache, who is approximately 30 years old. He is dressed in a red military uniform. Object after conservation treatment.

Identification

  • Object Type: Painted photograph of male in military uniform
  • Date: c. 1901-1909
  • Origin: Produced in Rossington, Yorkshire
  • Owner: Private
  • Maker: Unknown
  • Measurements: 
    • Length: 50.4 cm
    • Width: 40 cm
  • Materials: Cotton canvas, paper, and oil paint (with traces of lead)

Summary

This is an oil painted enlarged photograph mounted onto canvas; it depicts a male in red military uniform. The subject is James Carlow (b.1870 – d.1940), he was a sergeant and fought in the Second Boer War (1899-1902). The portrait was manufactured circa. 1901-1909 in Rossington, Yorkshire. 

Enlarged photographs were introduced in 1857 and became popular in the UK in the 1860s. With this development, photographers began to incorporate colour by hand into monochromatic photographs to conceal imperfections; directed by their clients. Painted photographs were sometimes attached to canvas to present more like traditional oil paintings – and cost significantly less. There is evidence that this portrait was previously on a stretcher/strainer, which is a wooden frame support, usually used for easel paintings.

Behind the Scenes

Object prior to conservation treatment. Alt text: oil painted enlarged photograph portrait mounted onto canvas, depicting a white male with a predominant moustache, who is approximately 30 years old. He is dressed in a red military uniform. The object is torn into two main sections, partial tears around the perimeter. Some loss of the photograph and the paint in areas.
Object prior to conservation treatment.
The back of the object, showing the canvas backing prior to treatment. There is a “clean” margin around the perimeter, which is evidence that the portrait was previously on a stretcher/strainer.
Canvas backing prior to treatment.
Oil painted enlarged photograph portrait mounted onto canvas, depicting a white male with a predominant moustache, who is approximately 30 years old. He is dressed in a red military uniform. Object after conservation treatment.
Object after conservation treatment.
Oil painted enlarged photograph portrait mounted onto canvas, depicting a white male with a predominant moustache, who is approximately 30 years old. He is dressed in a red military uniform. This image captures the profile before (left) and after (right) retouching the paint.
Before (left) and after (right) retouching of the paint.

The conservator who treated this object is Rogue, click on the profile to learn more.

Note: All images were taken by the conservator unless stated otherwise.

Rogue, a white woman in her early 20s with mid-length dark hair. She is smiling, look to the left with one arm lifted partly across her body. She is wearing a dark knitted jumper and large pendant necklace. The photo is in black and white.

Related Objects

Click on the image to learn more.

Parchment and Paper Collection

Schoolteacher’s Album – examining paintings, on the left side there is a watercolour of a pale woman with dark hair looking to her right, wearing a dark red top over a blue undershirt and on the right is of purple flower study winding up the page.
Schoolteacher’s Album
The inside of a log book. It has slips of paper inside the front cover. The first page has hand-written certifications of qualifications.
RAF Log Book
The manuscript after treatment. It has a decorative heading with smaller black writing underneath. Red lines are used to guide the writing.
18th Century Parchment Manuscript
Parchment document – unfolded prior to treatment. The faded cream parchment has multiple areas of damage including a loss in the upper right middle. The parchment is hand illustrated at the top and the calligraphy is in black ink spanning across the bottom section of the parchment. There is an engraving style print of a woman in the top left corner.
Parchment Document, 1702
Front of parchment document with writing, held down at each corner with weights, scale in bottom right corner.
Parchment Document, c. 1649