English School, 18th century Portrait of a gentleman, half length, in a red cloak and lace collar oil on canvas 82 x 66cm Condition report: Oil on canvas which is unlined. The canvas tension is very slack and the painting has come away from the stretcher at the right hand side. Tears to the canvas have been secured from the reverse with masking tape. There are undulations across the surface of the painting including pronounced stretcher bar marks where the canvas ressts against the wooden stretcher behind. The paint layer has a network of age cracks which are raised with areas of flaking and loss. In the lower half of the painting there are blisters in the paint layer with losses. The varnish is very degraded, it no longer saturates the paint layers below and has discoloured. There is a thick dirt layer which is partly imbibed into the varnish.