These two Portraits of Ladies are attributed to John Rogers Herbert, British, b1810-d1890

The ‘before’ image of the Lady with a Cross, shows neither the cross nor the pearl earring before cleaning. Very often religious symbols were covered to make pictures acceptable to a wider cliental. The cross appeared to be deliberately abraded but fortunately sufficient information was still available to be reconstructed. The earring, in the previous restoration, was completely over-painted although, after we removed the retouch, it was still almost in fact intact with just few losses.

Both portraits had a layer of discolored varnish, which was removed.