The Framers Forum

A framed Oil on canvas came in last week, for a frame repaint.
This artwork was done by "one of Ireland's leading realist landscape painters".
I guess you could argue that the work itself hasn't actually been damaged but...

What is it that's bothering you?

I guess I should have taken more photos, that showed the stapled points all around the side edge of the canvas, my bad!
My problem is that someone thought it okay to screw screws and drive points into the side of the canvas and then completely tape over the back of the canvas. I think its just shoddy work. Am I alone in thinking it?

I thought I was looking at points with staples over them to hold an inner and outer frame together and then mirror plates or something like, bent over to fix the canvas to the inner frame??

Then, all taped over to conceal it all.

Yes you are, my fault, I missed the pic of the same fixings into the side of the canvas. I still don't agree with papering over the back of the actual canvas, whether it's valued at 5k or not.
Bonus point if anyone spotted the keys inserted incorrectly...

The canvas should really be stapled or tacked on the sides, maybe it is as well as about 100 staples on the back?

Either way a few framers points added to all that isn’t going to make much difference,
I wouldn’t do that though, I’d have a good enough assortment of offset/spring clips.

For something valuable or “nice” though I would cover the back for protection and also recommend glazing; (bracing myself on that idea!) then the back would need sealing, but not like that.

I guess there's more than one way to do it. I was trained to staple on the back. My concern is that if it ever requires restretching, then they've weakened the canvas and it is likely to tear.
I'm not complaining, I'm just critiquing an example of work that I think is particularly bad.

I'm still struggling to see the main issue here.
I see the bent over and home-made picture plates and the rather ugly cross-head screws.
Are you saying that they also fired in a load of framer's points to secure the canvas stretcher to the frame?
It's not pretty but taping over it all at least makes it look presentable.
Would the customer care either way?

Yes, framers points into the side of the canvas with staples to hold in place. Most customers don't know any better, but taping over the back of an original high value canvas is terrible workmanship in my book.

If he's already got those bent-over plates, why does he need to be firing points into the canvas?
Is he afraid the canvas might escape from the frame?

We had to do a repair job recently - visiting a customer's home to re-tension a canvas bought from a large gallery up country. The canvas had relaxed considerably. We discovered no bracing bars, despite it being around 5ft square, so that strainer moulding they'd used had bowed in on each side. They'd fixed it into the frame with framers points and staples, very generously fired into all four sides. Which meant we were unable to just remove and re-tension it over proper braced stretcher bars. Any pulling on the sides would have caused the canvas to split along the effectively zip line/perforated line they'd created all around it with the framers points. They'd also covered the back of the canvas and bars with tape. It was a real mess.

We managed to do the job by creating bracing bars and installing them in situ with a bit of careful engineering - but this was on a very expensive original piece of art and the customer was less than impressed with the original work.

I know some customers/artists like tape over the back like that one, but I've never understood it when there are so many other methods that mean you don't have to put all those extra holes in the canvas. And I really dislike the mess it leaves behind if you ever need to try and remove it.

That's my go-to method with canvases. But I use the bendy plates from Lion. They have a bit of give in them.
I never tape over them.