THE CARE OF PICTURES AND PRINTS. 91 



In this way an old picture gets a new lease of life ; but the question 

 remains whether the new lease might not be made longer, and indeed 

 extended almost indefinitely, by impregnating the canvas with some- 

 thing that would increase its durability without weakening its sub- 

 stance. It is well known that the fiber of the threads in canvas is so 

 weakened by the application of oil-paint, or oil alone, that it after- 

 ward is easily torn, and it is weakened in the same way by some 

 other applications. 



Oil-pictures unprotected by glass are always quietly accumulating 

 a coat of dust and dirt, which, in course of time, unless it is occasion- 

 ally removed, makes the hazardous process called "picture-cleaning" 

 present itself as an ineluctable necessity if the work be visible at all. 

 The two preservative cleanings are first simply dusting with a light 

 feather-brush and an occasional careful washing with a soft rag, some 

 warm water, and a little soap, but not a strong soap. I remember a 

 house where a new Scotch house-maid, who was alarmingly industrious, 

 was discovered one morning on the point of cleaning all the pictures 

 in a certain room with soft-soap and a scrubbing-brush. She was 

 about to apply the same treatment to the frames, on which there was 

 a good deal of burnished gilding, which would all have immediately 

 disappeared. As for the pictures themselves, if they were covered 

 with old well-hardened varnish, they might possibly have survived, 

 but unvarnished works would have been injured or destroyed. It is 

 impossible to foresee what schemes a zealous servant may not carry 

 into execution. Projecting ornaments on frames are always in danger 

 from servants' dusters. I once possessed a plaster statuette, which 

 was valuable because there were only three copies in existence, and 

 every successive house-maid broke its arm off with a blow from the 

 wooden stick which is inside a feather-brush. The arm was regularly 

 glued on again for the next house-maid. The feather-brush looks a 

 most innocent instrument, but the stick in it makes the house-maid 

 formidable. 



I once knew an old gentleman who possessed a picture of great 

 value, the most important work of its master (one of the old masters) 

 in existence. This picture was the pride and pleasure of his old age, 

 and he could not help caressing it, as it were. From sheer love of it, 

 he could not be satisfied with looking at it, but must needs touch it 

 frequently also, and his way was to pass an oiled rag gently over its 

 surface. I believe the oil he used was olive-oil (he was a Frenchman, 

 and so there would always be olive-oil in the house for the salad), and as 

 olive-oil never dries, or at least is the worst drier known,* perhaps it 

 did not accumulate on the picture, but the dust must have stuck to it, 

 and made a fresh application necessary from time to time merely to 



* Field says that olive-oil is reported to have been used for painting in Italy in place 

 of the desiccative oils, but he thinks it likely that it was only employed as a diluent. No 

 painter in our climate would think of using olive-oil in any way whatever. 



