One of the best ways to promote a product of service is offering hard-hitting proof that it works. Koolen Fine Arts, a gallery in Stratford, Canada, did just that. On top of trading artworks, the showroom offers restoration services for antique paintings. To show their capabilities, the company fixed only half of a painting and exhibited the results to show what they can do for their potential customers and their art at home.
Restoring a painting is tough on its own—it can easily go wrong—but this team also had a serious challenge that required removing three centuries of cigarette, cigar, and pipe smoke. “What does 300 years of smoke look like on an original painting?” a caption accompanying the exhibited work reads. The text explains how the portrait, depicting a blonde young lady, was created in the early 1730s by an unnamed English artist, and that the right side had been cleaned and revarnished.
The results speak for themselves. Where there once was a yellow tint over the composition due to the old varnish, a bright composition emerges. The woman’s seemingly green dress is even revealed to actually be blue, almost matching her eyes. And her milky white skin is lightly rosied with pink undertones on her cheeks. But the company doesn’t even need to directly point out any of this as the differences are visibly apparent. They just finish their message with a simple question: “Do you have artwork which can benefit from cleaning and restoration?”
This is not the first restoration Koolen Fine Arts has shown the results of. Their Facebook page shows that they also excel at restoring tears and wrinkles from older paintings that sit for years in family homes. Through social media, they celebrate the work museums do to keep their assets looking pristine.
To stay up to date with their incredible work—or to reach them should you ever come across a worn down family heirloom—you can follow Koolen Fine Arts on Facebook.
Koolen Fine Arts, a gallery in Stratford, Canada, removed 300 years of smoke damage from half of a painting to show their restoration capabilities.
Half of this painting was restored to compare to 300 years of cigarette smoke build-up
byu/yogrowman inDamnthatsinteresting
The company also excels at restoring tears and wrinkles from older paintings that sit for years in family homes.
The results simply speak for themselves.
Koolen Fine Arts: Website | Facebook
h/t: [Reddit]
Related Articles:
Stunning Restoration of ’Liberty Leading the People’ Returns to the Louvre
Vermeer Painting Restoration Reveals a Portrait of Cupid Hidden for Over 350 Years