Replica frame section of a 19th century salan-style frame recreated from archival photographs. Note the section has two different surface tonalites for the client to choose from.

Details of the salon-style replica frame.

Diego Salazar Antique Frames created a replica of a salon-style frame for Return from the Harvest, William-Adophe Bouguereau’s monumental painting in the collection of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. Using archival photographs of the painting in its original frame as a guide, and our extensive inventory of antique frames as models, we recreated this work’s lost frame.

Read Michele Brangwen’s article about the project, originally published in the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Journal, below.

Framing Bouguereau’s Return from the Harvest

 Creating a frame for Return from the Harvest, a masterwork by William-Adolphe Bouguereau depicting an idyllic and age old scene from peasant life in the countryside-- a subject the artist would explore and celebrate throughout his career—presented a unique and exciting challenge for us as framers of fine art. The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens initially us asked for reframing suggestions from our selection of antique frames.

The monumental size of the canvas, 95” x 67,” made the number of aesthetically and historically appropriate antique frames suggestions somewhat limited. The painting was commissioned from the artist by the wealthy American department store owner Alexander T. Stewart; archival photographs illustrating Stewart’s sumptuous house on Fifth Avenue at 34 th street show the painting, as well as other paintings from his collection, hung in a beautiful salon-style frames. We did have some lovely possibilities for Return from the Harvest, but none were exactly like the painting’s original frame as seen in the archival photographs. After careful consideration, the Cummer Museum asked us if we could create a replica of that frame based on the archival photographs.

A mystery that both the museum curator and framer of fine art are sometimes faced with is just how an exceptional painting and frame of such large proportions come to be separated from each other. If it didn’t come to the museum in the original frame, “where did something that big go?” is the question most often posed; based on the scale in the archival photos the frame for Return from the Harvest would have had a molding width of 15” to 16” inches, and comprised of applied composition ornament would have probably weighed more than two thousand pounds. While the answer to that question still remains to be discovered, one of the most exciting journeys that a framer can embark on is the recreation of a painting’s original frame. I use the word “recreation” poetically here, for what the framer is actually creating is a replica, or exact copy of the antique frame, using the same centuries old techniques employed by the artisans who made the original frame.

In case of Return from the Harvest, two archival photographs from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art were the only source materials for determining the exact size and design of the frame. At Diego Salazar Antique Frames, we have an extensive collection of French frames in many sizes and styles and from many periods, but the exact combination of ornament on the original frame, was not to be found altogether in one antique frame. We were able to identify and find a model for each separate ornament that comprised the design of the frame on different antique in our collection. So the first step was accomplished, we had an accurate historical model for each of the design elements and had only to enlarge them and reproduce them in the correct order.

The second step was to determine what the actual width of the original frame would have been. After making some calculations, it was determined that the original frame would have been between 15” and 18” wide. While the painting is very large in size, it was determined that a mammoth salon style frame of those proportions would be distracting to the viewer of today. We suggested making the molding width 12” and created a profile drawing sample section of molding using the three different ornaments on frame. We also decided that it would be more prudent to hand carve the frame, making it weigh in at a mere eight hundred pounds, instead of the two thousand that would have been the result had we used applied composition ornament.

The use of composition ornament began in the mid 1700’s and was the state of the art in frame making throughout American and Europe because it allowed for complex and intricate designs to be made quickly. There were still frame makers who hand carved their frames, especially in Italy, but the carved frame didn’t become more prevalent again until the early 20 th century in American, when the aesthetics of the Arts and Crafts Movement were being championed by artists and craftsmen alike. In addition to being lighter, the carved frame is also more stable, making it more resistant to damage. There are contemporary framers who machine carve frames, but the results are less than desirable; the frame for Return from the Harvest is completely hand carved and gilded.

The molding sample that we envisioned as the proto-type for the frame’s molding also had two different hues of gilded surface and two different finishing technique for the Museum to choose from. On one half of the molding section, we used blue clay on top of the gesso layer and under the gold leaf, and on the other we used red. In addition, one side of the sample was burnished, a technique of rubbing the gold to make the surface more reflective, and the other was left mat. This was done so that the molding sample could be held up against the painting to determine what finish would be most complimentary to the painting. Once the molding sample was approved and the finish decided—red clay and a burnished surface was chosen—we began work on the frame on the replica frame.

Michele Brangwen 2004