Odd Stretching Method

[Rick Granick]

A customer recently asked me to remove a portrait painting from its frame so she could ship it. I have never seen anything stretched this way. The liner frame was used as the stretcher, and the painting was affixed/stretched to the inner rabbet of the liner with crude strips of nailed-in wood, and secured with a bunch of tacks all around on the back (which then had paper glued over them). It looks like they cut the corners of the painting's canvas to accommodate this odd technique. Needless to say, I left it in the liner, and just removed that from the big, heavy frame. This was framed at a local photography studio in 1966.
Rick

 

[Bruce Papier]

I don't see how they controlled the tension on the canvas doing it that way. It seems a lot harder than doing it the usual way.

 

[Jim Miller]

Bruce brings up a good point about tensioning. Also, did the strainer for stretching have a raised lip to prevent cracking of the paint at the inside edge? That lip on strainer/stretcher profiles serves an important purpose.

Thanks for showing this example of well-intended poor workmanship, Rick. Long before 1966, correct canvas stretching was widely known, but that framer missed the lesson. If this painting shows no damage or deterioration after 59 years, it's just luck.

 

[Rick Granick]

Right. I have no idea how the tension was achieved, but judging by the crude nature of the wood strips, I assume there was no raised lip involved.
I guess they were lucky, because the painting looked fine in the frame, which was a heavy, gessoed closed-corner frame which I'm guessing was a readymade which would have been common in photo studios in those days. The liner was painted white wood. My customer has the companion painting, framed the same way.
Rick