Ludwig Bronze Sculptures Conservation
Bayou Preservation has conserved a number of metal and bronze sculptures for private collectors and institutions such as Tulane University. Two of these sculptures include works from the Ludwig Bronze Foundry. One is the "Boy With Catfish," and the other is "Bronze Bust." Both pieces had spent some time outdoors, and struggled with inconsistent patinas that were not part of the artists' original intentions.
Boy with catfish
For "Boy With Catfish," we carefully cleaned the sculpture, reversed the verdigris on the body, increased the verdigris on the fish, and then waxed the sculpture.
Click through gallery below to see progress from before restoration, halfway through the process (notice aerial shot as the patina changes colors with the application of chemicals), ending in finished rendition.
bronze bust
For "Bronze Bust," we had to carefully apply different patina formulations for every part of the sculpture in order to make her face really come "alive" again. We also returned the head scarf to its original blue/green tint before waxing the entire piece. This project proved particularly tricky due to the amount of textures and different patination methods.
