Ralph Earl Looking East from Denny Hill, 1800

Technical Notes
The painting’s primary support consists of two joined pieces of fine, plain-weave canvas. The horizontal seam, which spans the canvas width, occurs forty-six centimeters below the top edge. The canvas has an average of nineteen threads per centimeter running horizontally. Cusping is visible along all four edges. Most of the tacking edges are missing; the surviving remnants are quite worn. There is a hole at the top-center edge, probably made by a framing nail. There are losses of fabric that extend into the design area along the bottom-left edge. Paint from the design area extends onto the top tacking edge.

The ground is a very thin, rather uneven layer of dark red paint that Earl probably applied; it does not hide the canvas texture. Not all of the tacking edges are completely coated with ground color.

The paint is thinly applied. The general techniques employed involve broad, thin applications of paint, with finer details later painted wet-on-dry. The figures were among the last elements Earl added. Microscopic examination of the signature suggests that it is original to the painting. The surface contains granular areas, mostly in the foreground, that appear to be associated with areas of lighter green paint. The granules that give these areas their texture seem to be chunks of coarsely ground white pigment. An X-radiograph of the bottom-left corner clearly shows these granular areas as white specks. The same X-radiograph reveals finger smudges in the ground layer.

The top edge of the design area, which has been protected by the frame rabbet, shows that the exposed area of the painting has suffered from fading. For instance, the dark areas of the clouds originally looked more purple.

The painting has extensive abrasion overall. Many of the figures and animals are now severely thinned and appear transparent. Abrasion also has revealed much of the underlying dark red ground layer. There are old losses from an extensive network of fine flaking that are now consolidated with wax-resin adhesive.

The painting was last treated in 1981, receiving several varnish coats of Acryloid B-72. The varnish is somewhat matte in appearance but shows no signs of discoloration.