Cherubine Borg has recently completed a four-year degree in restoration of oil paintings at the Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design in Russia. Her studies were funded by the Malta Arts Scholarship Scheme, financed by the government.

The course allowed Borg and fellow students to take part in several restoration projects.

'Portrait of an Unknown Man' before restoration.

“The vast and varied artworks students practised on come from a variety of antique dealers, churches, family heirlooms and even a few smaller museums which have agreements with the faculty,” Borg said.

“Most of the time, the paintings are in very poor condition, have damage that clearly shows that they had been forgotten at the bottom of a box for decades with the author, date and subjects of the painting impossible to deduce.”

The subject of Borg’s dissertation project was one such painting: Portrait of an Unknown Man. The only information available was that the painting had been purchased as part of a lot by an art dealer.

With a painter to the painting, I was able to find out the dates and location in which this little-known portraitist worked- Cherubine Borg

Chemical analysis of the pigments indicated the painting was from the 19th century. Following cleaning and straightening of the canvas, a signature emerged at the bottom right hand side of the painting.

The signature under UV rays

Signatures would usually show up in a photo of reflected infrared rays, but this particular painter, П. Дубровинъ (P. Dubrovin), had a tendency to sign his pictures in very tiny cursive, with colours that almost blend in with the background.

“With a painter to the painting, I was able to find out the dates and location in which this little-known portraitist worked,” she explained.

The signature of the artist.

Borg highlighted the importance of donating such objects to students for research, saying that when institutions offer some of their less valuable works in their collections for students to practise on, these get more interesting pieces to add to their portfolio with which they can apply for a warrant while also seeing that the work in question is restored.