Otto R. Jacobi: Landscape, 1873, watercolor on paper 16x31 inches

This is an illustration of the restoration of a large puncture in a watercolor. The damage occurred in the lower right corner of the landscape just above the signature. Luckily, some of the broken off pieces were trapped behind the glass of the frame and could be used to reconstruct the damage.

The watercolor was already mounted once to canvas as can be seen in this close-up detail. At some time later it was again glued to a sheet of cardboard. The approach to restoration was to salvage the remaining small pieces of the original paper still loosely attached to the edges of the puncture. These were removed and preserved.

With the removal of the mounting layers below the original paper a large whole was made to permit the application of a filler that would act as the new support.

The whole is filled to provide a stable and flat surface to replace the salvaged original pieces and to reconstruct what was permanently lost.