15/2/23 - Restorations - Jean Bardin - The few reservations we had about Jean Bardin’s large church paintings (see article) seemed to make some people think that this called into question both the painter’s interest and that of the exhibition. This was of course never our intention. The readers of La Tribune de l’Art know that we always say what we think, and our opinion is, as we wrote, that you should visit this exhibition which introduces an artist who until now has been little more than a name, even among art historians.
It is also an opportunity, which we should have done in this review, to emphasise the extent to which this type of exhibition, which is off the beaten track, has an obvious heritage interest: it has made it possible, with the support of the regional conservation of historic monuments, to highlight and restore works that were previously ignored or little known. This is how the two large paintings by Jean Bardin The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew in the church of Mesnil-le-Roi and The Resurrection of Christ in the church of Charmentray were able to undergo fundamental restorations, the first one about fifteen years ago, the other one on the occasion of this very exhibition.
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- 1. Jean Bardin (1732-1809)
The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, 1765
(before restoration)
Oil on canvas - 280 × 200 cm
Mesnil-le-Roi, église Saint-Vincent
Photo: Press Office - See the image in its page
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- 2. Jean Bardin (1732-1809)
The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, 1765
(after restoration)
Oil on canvas - 280 × 200 cm
Mesnil-le-Roi, église Saint-Vincent
Photo: Musée d’Orléans - See the image in its page
The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew (ill. 1 and 2) was, before its restoration, by an unknown author [1]. It was moved to the church of Saint-Vincent de Mesnil-le-Roi in order to install an organ, and it was during the cleaning of the painting that the signature of Jean Bardin appeared. The photo of the painting, which was hanging high and almost invisible because it was so darkened, shows the treasures that churches can hold, which can go unnoticed and sometimes, for lack of interest, be condemned to disappear
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- 3. Jean Bardin (1732-1809)
The Resurrection of Christ, 1780 (detail before restoration)
Oil on canvas - 194 x 140 cm
Charmentray, église Sainte-Trinité
Photo: Musées d’Orléans - See the image in its page
The second painting, The Resurrection of Christ, was painted by Jean Bardin in 1780 for the high altar of the church at Charmentray. Its condition made it almost illegible (ill. 3 and 4), and its restoration was undertaken on the occasion of the exhibition. The Musée d’Orléans and its director, Olivia Voisin, were keen to emphasise the strong involvement of Anne-Sylvie Stern-Riffé, curator of historical monuments at the DRAC, who made this work possible, financed by the Town of Charmentray, the DRAC Île-de-France and the City of Orléans. Further proof, if any were needed, of the virtuous nature of this type of exhibition.
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- 4. Jean Bardin (1732-1809)
The Resurrection of Christ, 1780
(before restoration)
Oil on canvas - 194 x 140 cm
Charmentray, église Sainte-Trinité
Photo: Musées d’Orléans - See the image in its page
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- 5. Jean Bardin (1732-1809)
The Resurrection of Christ, 1780
(after restoration)
Oil on canvas - 194 x 140 cm
Charmentray, église Sainte-Trinité
Photo: Musées d’Orléans - See the image in its page
This restoration was carried out between April and October 2022 by Ève Froidevaux for the support, and Alix Laveau for the paint layer. The painting was difficult to read: it was mould a benign but spectacular degradation of the surface, resulting in micro-cracks in the varnish making it opaque, as can be seen on a detail photograph (ill. 3), and suffered from deep cracks in the paint layer, caused by the loosening of the canvas.
The varnish was regenerated with a solvent, which is a classic treatment to remove the cracks, the paint layer, which had not suffered any major losses, was reattached to its support, the canvas was doubled and the stretcher was changed. The painting was then cleaned, which revealed a very colourful shade range, in contrast to what was seen before, as shown in the images taken before and after the restoration (ill. 5).