Painting frame for bowed canvas - HELP ME SAVE!

[Justin Florentine]

So I spent a lot of time building a frame for a painting for my mother. It is a big heavy frame made of solid cherry. The painting was measured and checked for square, and it fits in the frame perfectly. There is some side to side play, by design. Based on the measurements, the view dimension is 1/8th smaller than the actual painting size.

Unfortunately, the canvas bows inward in the center by 1/8th as well.

I am crestfallen.

The only way I can think to fix this is to put a stretcher in the middle to push out the sides of the canvas, but I'm afraid this could damage it. Any genius ideas out there?

[Caspar Hauser]

hello Justin,

My initial response is to agree that a stretcher is the correct solution, depending on the size of the canvas you may wish to insert a cross shaped brace with a housing joint at the intersection, make this of stiff stuff thinner than the canvas stretcher such that it doesn't touch the back of the canvas.

Attaching the ends of the brace to the stretcher can be done in a number of ways depending on the depth of the rebate in the frame and the thickness of the stretcher, thin pieces of hardboard and small panel pins, or half lapping the ends of the brace onto the back of the stretcher, or a friction fit inside the stretcher might do the job perhaps with a few toe-nailed pins.

If all else fails re-stretching the canvas onto a stiffer stretcher is not difficult though it does tend to focus your attention!

I hope I have been helpful

[Barry Vabeach]

Justin, if the frame is already glued up, about the only option is a wooden piece to straighten the stretcher for the painting. If it isn't glued up ( or you don't mind dissolving the glue - google dissolving glue to get some ideas ) you can make the rebate wider and then trim the frame so that it hides the bow. I have done that more times than I care to mention. BTW, in the future you might want to plan for a wider rebate to cover the sides which are generally not straight. Even if the stretcher was straight, the canvas is typically stretched and tacked such that the corners are usually proud of the sides.