Self-Portrait

The famous Self-Portrait dated 1908 by Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916) reveals on the back an earlier and lesser-known Self-Portrait, dated 1906, hidden by the painter himself because it was deemed unsatisfactory. The restoration, carried out in 2017, was an opportunity to deepen our knowledge of the work and its conservation history.

The Self-Portrait is made in oil on canvas with a divisionist technique, by means of short juxtaposed brushstrokes of pure colors, with varying thickness and course. The canvas is mounted on a fixed wooden frame (70 x 100 cm), and placed in a non-original frame (94.5 x 124.5 x 9.5 cm).

In the painting Boccioni portrays himself on a balcony overlooking the suburban landscape of the Milanese suburbs, in what in 1908 was his home on Via Castel Morrone, corner of Via Goldoni. In the background are houses under construction and a train running over the now-demolished Acquabella overpass near what is now Piazza Maria Adelaide di Savoia, an anticipation of the Futurist themes of later years.

In a note dated May 13, 1908, the painter declares himself dissatisfied with his work: “Since the first of the month I have been in Mother’s house, away from that very unpleasant mistress, and I am quite well. In that house I finished the self-portrait, which leaves me completely indifferent.”

The painting, which belonged to Boccioni’s friend Vico Baer, was donated to the Pinacoteca di Brerain 1951.

In the late 1970s, the presence of another Self-Portrait was discovered on the back of the canvas, arranged orthogonally to the first one, and almost completely covered by a layer of gray oil paint, concentrated particularly on the face. The back at that time was further hidden by the presence of an old frame with a central crossbeam.
In 1979 it was then decided to restore the work. The painting was veiled to disassemble it from the frame; then perimeter strips were applied for new tensioning: from the 1908 portrait side, strips of hemp canvas were applied, gluing them with Araldite-rapid (Ciba-Geigy) along the edges free of paint. On the hidden portrait side, on the other hand, strips of fiberglass canvas with a frayed edge were applied, overlapping the paint by about an inch, and gluing them with Mowilith DM55. The work was then reassembled on a new frame (Del Bosco) without crossbars.

Cleaning aimed at removing the repainting, not without complexity due to the nature of the gray oil layering on coeval oil paint, was conducted by scalpel and solvent, with Dimethyl Acetate, and completed by a final varnish.
The revealed portrait was traced to 1906 because of the more youthful facial features, a different pictorial drafting, and some compositional uncertainties. It was erased presumably by Boccioni himself not satisfied with his own work; the canvas was rotated and turned by reusing it for the next portrait.

State of preservation before restoration

In 2017 the painting was restored again due to its conservative condition.
The painted surface of the 1908 portrait was affected by a thick layer of uneven varnish, which in the upper part had a more yellow hue while in the lower band appeared more gray, probably due to deposited dust.

A number of small color gaps were noticeable, especially along the right margin, including a slightly larger gap about halfway up and a more prominent previous gap in the lower corner. Of greatest concern were several areas affected by surface exfoliation, clearly evident in grazing light and distributed over the surface, of a nature not immediately understandable.
In contrast, the portrait on the back showed an overall stable pictorial matter, but significant cracking and serious gaps especially at the face.

Restoration work

The 1908 portrait was observed in ultraviolet light to assess the distribution and thicknesses of the surface varnishes, while the areas of exfoliation were observed under magnification. It was thus determined that the uplifts did not affect the pictorial matter, but only the surface layer of varnish, as confirmed by small preliminary cleaning tests at these areas.
Having assessed the stability of the paint material, the solubility test was conducted to choose the most suitable solvent mixture for paint thinning. Progressive cleaning was then carried out starting with the light backgrounds, employing a LE 4 to FD 73 mixture composed of Ligroin and Ethanol 60-40. The cleaning allowed the recovery of a radiant and “vibrant” chromatics, shaped by light, where the whites on close observation are shown to be composed of rapid brushstrokes of pure colors.
The small perimeter gaps were plastered level and retouched by vertical watercolor hatching technique.
At the end of the restoration work, a final acrylic-based varnish in petroleum essence (Vernis à tableau surfin anti-UV Lefranc Bourgeois) was sprayed on.

The tensioning system, although considered unsuitable, was kept considering it nonetheless functional and evaluating the important risks involved in its eventual removal.
Equally, it was decided not to intervene on the 1906 painting, since a pictorial retouching of the face would have been too extensive and invasive, and not essential to the reading of the image.
The painting was reinserted in a frame, protecting it on the recto with a museum glass and on the verso with carton-plum.