The object of the day: Flowers on a marble ledge by Elise Bruyere

Flowers on a marble ledge (1776 to 1847 France)
by Elise Bruyere  (1776-1847)

Medium
Oil on canvas

Dimensions
26.00cm wide 37.00cm high (10.24 inches wide 14.57 inches high)

Condition
Good

Description / Expertise
Élise Bruyère was the daughter of Jean-Jacques le Barbier, who was a noted writer, illustrator and painter of French historical scenes. Both Élise and her sister, who was also a painter studied with their father and subsequently with Jan Frans van Dael in his studio at the Sorbonne University. She exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1798 and was to become highly regarded in the male dominated art scene of the early Nineteenth Century, winning a second-class medal in 1827.

The care of antique works on paper

Porcupine, 1951, woodcut by Leonard Baskin

All works on paper have special needs; some problems, such as the damage caused by sunlight, have been touched on above, but this needs emphasis, and other risks need to be mentioned. Whether used for drawings, watercolours, prints or books, the healthy survival of paper, or otherwise, depends upon its quality. Until the early nineteenth century paper was made from linen rags, and the cellulose content in linen meant that added chemicals were unnecessary: this type of paper is the most resilient.
Paper made from wood pulp, as much was from the 1840s onwards, included lignin, an acidic light-sensitive substance which eventually turns the paper brown and brittle, while certain methods of sizing paper, and bleaching it, have also caused susceptibility to damage.