Photo Restoration Before & After: Crayon Portrait

This was an interesting piece for a few reasons. The customer brought in this crayon portrait that had been adhered to a sheet of lead.

The original was a hand colored crayon portrait. It was printed on a thin piece of fiber paper. A family member thought it would be helpful to glue it to a sheet of lead to give it some stability. Over the years, the glue bubbled in places and the photo started to deteriorate. At this point, the risk and price was too great to try and restore the original. The glue was still strong in a few places and would have destroyed the photo if we tried to lift it.

Instead, we decided to shoot the photo and restore it digitally. Our conservator stabilized and sealed it behind the reproduction in a new frame the customer picked out. The customer chose a Shenandoah frame, a Bainbridge mat, and a Larson Juhl fillet. It  gives the feel of that early 1900s look and really makes the photo pop.

Here are some photos of the before, after and framing details from the project.