Art restoration of one of our largest paintings: Retouching Van Dyck's 'Charles I' | 3

After relining and cleaning Anthony van Dyck's 'Equestrian Portrait of Charles I', it's finally time to retouch the painting. Watch as Paul, one of our Restorers, completes the treatment of one of our largest paintings.
Watch how we relined the painting: • Art restoration of one...
Watch how we cleaned the painting: • Art restoration of one...
We are grateful for the generous support of:
The Getty Foundation’s Conserving Canvas initiative for the relining of the painting
TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund for the restoration of the painting
Learn more about our relining project with The Getty Foundation: www.nationalga...
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[@girlnorthof60]

I appreciate the split screen of before/after for comparison. Beautiful restoration, I've enjoyed watching as the process was thoroughly explained & completed. Thank you.

[@lindaross783]

I enjoyed the series of this magnificent painting and the coming together of such experts. Watching Paul retouch it was thrilling. It was beautiful. Charles I will be remembered.

[@WGPhotographer]

I love this painting. I remember first seeing it on a school trip many years ago, learning about the English Civil war. Always thought the Horses head was rather small though lol.

[@conor_94_]

I have of course saw many restorations and this is by far one of the most special. This is why I am studying to become a conservator. Thank you for sharing.

[@EclecticBlues]

Fascinating video. I'd love to see the restored picture in its new frame. I hope it's back on display at the National Gallery soon.

[@nationalgallery]

We are filming a video on making the frame as we speak! Once the frame is complete, it will be back on display in a few months time.

[@cvbzizou]

Imagine thé skill it takes to restore a majestic portrait! More so the pressure one faces when responsible for trying to be true to history - matching shade and hue down to a nano. Art restorers are a national treasure - The treasures take care of the treasures! Bravo, Paul! 👏🏼

[@jensenhealey907efi]

I am from the USA and I would really like if someday I could visit the National Gallery and see these great works of art in person.

[@geoffreykeane4072]

Great work Paul. Skilful people always make the most complex of tasks seem simple! (Also that must be your favourite shirt)

[@cathyblackhall3448]

Geoffrey Keane I just wish we could have watched more of the actual touching up.

[@voraciousreader3341]

Stunning! The blue of the sky is a revelation, just amazing!

[@sharonkaczorowski8690]

Amazing difference! The brightness of the colors is wonderful!

[@lotharhempel]

Absolutely wonderful video! Thank you! Dankeschön! Can‘t wait this damn pandemic to be over to travel again and see this incredible painting „ in the flesh“!

[@steveturpin4242]

Brilliant...thank you. Very informative about such an impressive painting.

[@fainatselnik267]

Lovely work - got a lot of dimension And work on clouds and saddle looks amazing - fluid and delicate.

[@marysusanreid-daniels627]

Bravo for your meticuous and skilled care of this treasure

[@DANBOLLENBACHER]

I've enjoyed watching this, and the finished painting if beautiful. But looking at the whole picture (literally) I can't help but think the horse head is disproportionately small.

[@georgefrench1907]

A brilliant explication of the art restorer’s art. Well done.

[@levlevin6960]

Thank you for such great project!

[@srrfounder1]

Great restoration of a grossly scaled horse... BRAVO PAUL!

[@gangisspawn1]

Lol agreed

[@johnmyers7008]

What a superb restoration!

[@juhotuho10]

Amazing job on the restoration! though 10:19 when they over painted the knee section, i feel like they just covered up the saddle reflection, as in it was finished, but the metal was made to look so shiny that it almost mirrors the red color of the saddle. I am not an expert by any means, but i just have a feeling that he wouldn't let a part of the armor be unfinished because he probably started there. Same with the sword section, the metal looks gold like because it is reflecting the sword from that angle, after the over paint, the armor isn't reflecting the sword as it maybe should.

[@rexroganblat2690]

Really good video. I appreciate all of the explanation. Too many videos now are "mute" with silly soundtracks that have nothing to do with the subject matter.

[@Brilliantnash]

Together with Stubbs' Whistlejacket and Meisonniers Campagne en France, this one of my favourite equestrian paintings.

[@dashinvaine]

Are you sure that area of sky wasn't intended to have more texture in it? The large expanse of flat blue that has appeared with the retouching seems to stand out rather, whereas before it looked like feathery clouds. I'm pretty sure that was intentional, even if it was achieved by scraping off paint to reveal the grey colour below. The edges of the other clouds looked more natural before, too.

[@warriorson7979]

Well done.😌

[@huberticusrex]

Paul needs a raise so he can get some new polos! Cheers

[@jbaker3031]

I feel like the side of the thigh is reflecting the red blanket under the saddle. It will be interesting to see if they choose to overpaint that area.

[@briangroenbaek4431]

Amazing craftsmanship ...

[@Trixtah]

you would think, in that era, with plenty of horses around, van Dyck would have managed to get its proportions right. It looks like Hulk Hogan with Elijah Wood's head on top

[@gillyuk1013]

Do we have a date for going back on display? I can’t wait to see him again after so long!

[@nationalgallery]

Hi Gilly, not yet! We're currently filming a video on making the new frame for the painting as we speak and once that is complete, it will go back on display in a few months time. Keep an eye on our social channels to know when it's back up!

[@Fanny_Snuffle]

It was on the wall last month when I went.

[@Micro-Nova]

Thank you for sharing this beautiful work 👍🏻

[@annwilliams6438]

Looks like the artist and his Worksop were quite slapdash with many things to do with this painting! I wonder how much of this was due to King Charles pushing them for its quick production?

[@cherylkurucz8852]

❤❤❤❤

[@Ceorolus]

I was so busy following the restoration technique that I failed to see the equerry. Anyway, the results are emphatically more clear and I like King Charles' dynamic stance.

[@aiferapple1246]

Retouching Van Dyck's Charles sounds so wrong LOL Amazing restoration :)

[@karenkaren2369]

Good job!

[@RichMitch]

At what point does a painting become like Trigger's broom?

[@paulashford4155]

Nice

[@omfgacceptmyname]

wonderful

[@ilksenteksoy4008]

🇹🇷😍🤗MUHTEŞEM.....!!!!

[@mariam.mayorga2771]

The project must have been huge to undertake but I cannot help thinking that the retouching went a bit further. The painting has been through time and hiding most of the signals makes it look a bit unreal? I'm sure all this has been under consideration and I'd love to see this work finished once is possible.

[@fitnarina]

Im so bothered by the thick neck vs the small face of the horse....looks inproportion.

[@SmithMrCorona]

The horse would have been bred that way

[@ilksenteksoy4008]

Yorumların ötesinde 🤔

[@cmlandresc]

Bravo

[@jofox1186]

Does anyone know, why did VD paint the horses head so small?

[@PinkRose_1]

Did the horse skip leg day? why are they so thin?!

[@ilksenteksoy4008]

💖💖💖💖💖🤗

[@annaturba]

Why did they cover up so many clouds?

[@gertahnstrom784]

They didn't. Some of those 'gray clouds' were actually blue sky being worn down to a gray sub layer, explained in an earlier video of this project.

[@cowboyhenkcomic7677]

the intermezzo music is much too loud, in comparison to the talks, you have to get and adjust the volume continously....

[@NickPenlee]

As "No No" commented below 'the horses neck is huge'. Actually I think that the head is far too small. The deep chest and hind quarters are a little out of scale but the head is minuscule in comparison. It's always fascinated me as to why proportions of this period are frequently in error when so much work has been invested in rendering the actual depiction. Rubens always painted plumpy rumpy women whose heads were, again, far too small for the body. A mystery!! Surely these painters were chasing realism and accuracy in their work and weren't pre-impressionists.

[@Frankowillo]

It is possible that the horse actually is in proportion. I saw a video some years ago, and War Horses of that era, and earlier, were powerfully built, especially in the neck and body. You have to bear in mind that the horse was itself used as a "shock" weapon.

[@BenBen-vu5hi]

Wtf is wrong with u ppl, it’s just a painting

[@echokeller5778]

It is very likely that Charles himself did not want the head of the horse to “ upstage@ his own appearance in the painting, and asked Van Dyke to reduce the size of it. Van Dyke would have had no choice but to do as the King asked

[@nilsp9426]

I wonder if leaving the seam as it is was a seriously contemplated option. Isn't it an important part of the paintings history?

[@RocLobo358]

just looking at all the painstaking work makes me stressed

[@mangoldm]

The horse seems all out of proportion. The head is too small and the neck is too big. The musculature is cartoonishly large. Is this perhaps a message of all brawn and no brain?

[@vegassims7]

Beautiful painting but the horses head is WAY to small and looks cartoonish.

[@suonaunharmonica]

I most emphatically must disagree with the term:“Beautiful restoration”. Apart from the beautifully done covering of the exposed canvas line that was running across the middle of the painting, I might’ve thought that it would be obvious that this is a rather unfortunate attempt at restoring this masterpiece. Observe the lightness the flow of all the shapes on the original and the almost primitivistic confinement of form after the restoration. Excruciating example the “before and after” of the sky and clouds on the 9:07 point of the video. The three dimensional vanishing airy clouds towards the distant horizon that created tremendous multilayered depth of perspective and almost the sensation of movement in the aerial masses, has been substituted with paper-cutout, collage-like color filaments. Accordingly so the the now “wooden” leg of Charles, resembling a rigid mannequin doll figure, stiff and unnatural devoid of the sense of the rider’s weight and its human like movement it had before, albeit within the grandiose magnificence compulsively having to be implied through the depicted convention a “captured moment”. Moreover the horse’s belly and mane, the foliage behind Charles’s head, etc. One could go on with composing a lengthy essay on this particular before and after. Personally I do hope that fully reversible techniques and colors have been used, as would be appropriately expected of such a high profile conservation, in full respect of the original artwork be it covered or not, so that hope for a a salvage approach might lie in store at some point in the future.

[@jadezee6316]

seems an over whelming task......yet...8 weeks later..it looks fresh... i am of two minds...regarding these restorations...while i understand why they are done...and we dont want the piece to age..beyond repair......just how much "paint"...can be applied before the argument that it is no longer the work of the artist?....or maybe you just dont think that..appropriate.......

[@BenBen-vu5hi]

Jade Zee hell yeah buddy

[@Steelmage99]

".just how much "paint"...can be applied before the argument that it is no longer the work of the artist?....or maybe you just dont think that..appropriate....... " That is indeed an issue. Have you watched any videos of Baumgartner Restoration? He talks about this very issue quite often.

[@lawrencefinch-hatton6231]

I’m not convinced that the horse’s leg was left in there to give an impression of spontaneity... My guess would be that this painting was something his studio had been messing about with.

[@Trixtah]

I'm sure with your many qualifications in art history, you're well-informed to comment on that. I'm fairly sure they would have researched his style and the fashions at the time to determine how deliberate that choice would have been.

[@ratanashifu]

The front legs are far too thin. Van Dyck must have been in a hurry.

[@BIZEB]

I really don't understand the lack of a mahl stick or bridge in these important restorations. I'm not concerned about touching the surface, but the constant pressure and weight of your hand on those canvases feel unnecessary.

[@echokeller5778]

The canvas is far heavier than any canvas used today, and most likely was supported by something in back as well.

[@Srabubulupa]

That horse umm has a small head

[@missmerbella]

I personally think Paul is a far better retoucher than Baumgartner.

[@sereminar4]

It's such an ugly hose xD

[@nicholaszaris5113]

So…they made it lighter. Art isn’t supposed to last forever, this is NOT how the painting would have looked at the time. VERY artificial. Should have that guys name on it in addition to Dyke

[@wadwadwadwadwadwadw]

Thanks for hiding all those Van Dyck brushstrokes. I obviously rather want to see the work of those random art students.

[@SmithMrCorona]

Random?

[@beefknuckles]

These are real restorers. Not like that Baumgartner guy.

[@Cynful033]

What do you dislike about him?

[@2adamast]

Or a Van Dyck that would have splashed some paint in a hurry

[@Steelmage99]

Huh? Can you elaborate on that?

[@crixxxxxxxxx]

And they don’t cram the video with 87 ad breaks.

[@spaceskipster4412]

@@crixxxxxxxxx they don't need to. Getty paid for it... 👍🏼 💵 💷 😉

[@Nono-hk3is]

What's up with the horse's neck? Its huge.

[@BenBen-vu5hi]

The horse might be fat