NEW YORK, NY.- The National Museum of Wildlife Art first approached Eli Wilner & Company for the reframing of Joseph Wolf’s 1861 “Bearded Vultures Attacking an Ibex” in March of 2014. This massive painting, 90 ½ x 67 inches, had previously been housed in a 20th century reproduction frame, machine shaped and finished with metal leaf, and therefore not original to the artwork.

Joseph Wolf (1820-1899) was a German-born painter, who later lived and worked in London, and is known for having helped establish wildlife art as a genre. Taking into consideration the artist’s regional influences as well as the dramatic subject matter, the Wilner team suggested creating a replica of a 19th Century European frame from their inventory of over 3,000 antique frames. This Dutch-style frame is shaped and stained with three rows of hand carved, applied ripple molding. Since the antique frame measures just 4 ¼ inches in width, it was determined that the width of the replica frame needed to be increased so that it would be appropriate for this robust painting. Using digital mockups, they settled on a new 10 ½ inch wide profile.

Though everyone was in agreement about the aesthetic approach, a lot of financial and logistical factors needed to be put in place before proceeding with a framing project of this size and scope. This included decisions on the conservation of the painting itself, and how to work with the museum’s pending budget. Eli Wilner & Company was able to offer a substantially reduced price for the Wolf frame by applying the resources of their internal museum funding program, but it was still a large undertaking for a mid-size regional institution.

Three years after this initial discussion, the National Museum of Wildlife Art was in a position to proceed, thanks in large part to their Collectors Circle, an upper-level membership group, who voted to conserve and reframe the Joseph Wolf painting.

In the summer of 2017, Wilner sent a selection of finished wood samples for the curatorial team to review with the painting. The provided samples had subtle variations in the saturation of black and brown stains to determine which would be most complementary to the darkest elements of the painting. While these were being considered, and exact sizes were still pending, the Wilner master carvers began working on the rows of ripple molding.

In January of 2018, the painting had been relocated to the Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts in Denver for restoration. After several months of tackling this enormous project, the conservators at WCCFA were kindly able to provide exact sizes for the frame specifications, and the Wilner studio was able to fully move forward with creating the frame. This entailed shaping and sanding the wood substrate from multiple blocks of wood, securely joining the miters, applying the rows of carving, re-carving the corners to resolve the ornament perfectly, and finally creating a complex stained finish to match the selected sample.

Meanwhile, shipping logistics were organized and the Wilner studio constructed a travel crate. The Wilner gallery staff coordinated with the museum’s registrar to set up a fine art shipper to transport the crated frame across country from Long Island City, NYC to WCCFA in Colorado where the conservators would fit the restored painting into the frame. By the end of August, the frame was completed and secured inside its crate. A few weeks later, it was joined with the painting, and by November 2018, three and half years after the initial discussion, it was finally installed in the museum gallery!

Eli Wilner & Company continues to welcome institutions to submit reframing and frame restoration projects for consideration, regardless of size or scope. Several exciting new projects from museums and historic houses across the country are currently being discussed, and scheduled for completion in 2019.