The Ford Conservation Center’s Painting Lab recently completed the treatment of two oil paintings by Theodosia “Theo” Coie. The paintings date to the early 1900s and had been handed down to the artist’s great nephew. Both paintings had aesthetic and structural issues that needed to be addressed by a conservator.
In this after-treatment image, both of Theo Coie’s paintings have been cleaned, stabilized, and re-varnished.
The wooded landscape was in relatively good structural condition, except for craquelure (fine cracks in the varnish) throughout the sky. The painting’s visual appearance had darkened overall, which required removing the discolored varnish and applying a new varnish layer. The smaller painting on the left, of a cottage on a lake, had sustained significant structural damage. This article will focus on its extensive treatment.
The ‘Cottage on the Lake’ painting had suffered from a series of tears in the thin linen canvas. A small piece of canvas had become entirely detached from the painting. The edges of the tears had begun to curl inward, causing distortions in the canvas. Additional distortions had appeared near the corners of the canvas from a lack of tension from the stretcher.
Over the past century, the painting accumulated a layer of dirt and grime, and the original varnish had become darker. Stress and drying cracks appeared throughout the painting.
The two before-treatment photographs above show the extent of the structural damage to the canvas. Tears are visible throughout the left half of the painting. Canvas distortions—tears, cracks, and undulations—are more easily seen using raking light.
The first step of treatment was to remove the painting from the frame and photograph details of the damaged areas before treatment. Surface debris was removed from the front and back of the canvas using soft brushes. Next, the painting was carefully removed from the stretcher bars and laid face down. The back of the painting was humidified and placed under weight to eliminate the canvas distortions. Cleaning tests were performed to determine the safest aqueous and/or solvent mixtures for cleaning. The painted surface was then cleaned of dirt, grime, and discolored varnish.
Damaged areas were consolidated with an appropriate adhesive and faced with Japanese tissue to prevent further paint loss during the treatment process. Once the tears were aligned and stabilized, the back of the painting was coated with a wax/resin adhesive. The painting was then lined to a synthetic fabric on a heated suction table. The heat and vacuum allowed the bond between the two canvases to be even throughout the painting.
Solvents are tested along the perimeter of the painting to determine the solubility of the discolored varnish for its eventual removal.
After lining, the canvas was reattached to the original stretcher, which was keyed out to achieve proper tension. This completed the structural repairs. Before any aesthetic compensation was done, a thin layer of acrylic resin varnish was brush-applied over the canvas to act as a barrier between Theo Coie’s original work and the inpainting done by the conservator.
Next, a thin layer of gesso was used to fill in areas of loss, providing an even surface for inpainting and disguising any visible tear edges. Using pigments in resin, the conservator retouched areas of loss, carefully matching the surrounding colors.
Before-treatment image—complex tears are present in the tops of the trees, near the door of the cottage, and the boat.
After-treatment image—tears have been repaired, and the removal of the old varnish has lightened the painting overall.
The artist, Theo Coie, was born in rural Ringgold County in southern Iowa in 1877. She attended Tarkio College in Missouri but ultimately graduated from the Iowa State Normal School (now the University of Northern Iowa) with a degree in Didactics. It is unclear whether painting was ever a focus during her education, but it was a talent that she enjoyed developing over the course of her life. Theo’s sister, Mae Coie Millan, was interested in photography, and the sisters sometimes collaborated, with Mae staging and photographing a scene that Theo could then paint.
Theo (left) and Mae (right), pictured with their mother, Elizabeth McClatchey Coie, in 1920. Photo courtesy of John Core.
Theo married Alexander “Albert” Allen in 1908. They spent their lives farming in Tingley, Iowa, where Theo was well known for keeping beautiful flower gardens. Their yard also featured a rock garden and a fish pond. She continued painting, producing many works (mostly watercolors) that are now treasured by her sister Mae’s descendants.
Theo and Albert had one son, Warren Albert, who was killed in France on D-Day in June of 1944. Theo passed away in September of the same year, after a years-long battle with cancer and grieving the loss of her only child.
Theo, Albert, and Warren Allen, 1940. Photo courtesy of John Core.
