Art conservation is a union of science and art. Here's the process behind restoring a 125-year-old painting.

Elias Chavez,Maggie Cai,Ben NighJul 28, 2023, 22:54 IST

Varnish being removed from an old painting.Center Art Studio

Art restoration combines art history, chemistry, and studio art.
Restoring a painting can take anywhere from a few hours to a few months.

Restoring art is not a singular discipline. It combines art history, studio art, and chemistry.

The process of restoring pieces of art, paintings, sculptures, and manuscripts can be as unique as the pieces of art themselves. Each medium requires different techniques to restore it to its original beauty. Conservators are tasked with understanding what methods went into creating the original painting and what techniques past conservators used to inform new practices.

In contending with both, conservators use various techniques to slowly learn what materials to use while they restore a piece of work to its original beauty. For conservators like Sara Drew, who works at Center Art Studio in New York, the task involves a mixture of paints, varnishes, and solvents.

Every piece of art requires something different and a different understanding of the materials and techniques to restore it.

Sarah Drew sits in front of an oil painting with a brush.Center Art Studios

The process is not without risk, but the experts behind the sharp and precise tools needed for the process are rarely worried.

A conservator uses a knife to remove paper from canvas.Insider

First, the painting has to come out of the frame.

Pliers removing nails from a frame that holds an oil painting.Insider

Next, the canvas needs to be removed from its stretcher.

Pliers removing tacks from a canvas.Insider

The edges of the canvas are ironed to flatten the surface.

Canvas being ironed to flatten the surface.Insider

The canvas is vacuumed to remove decades of dust, grime, and debris.

The back of a canvas being vacuumed.Insider

A surfactant cleaner is used to remove grease, grime, and oil off the surface of the painting.

A Q-tip being used to remove residues from the surface of a painting.insider

Imperfections on the canvas made by past conservationists are also removed during the initial cleaning.

A heat gun removing paper from the back of a canvasCenter Art Studios

The painting is then assessed with ultraviolet black light to find details about the painting that isn't apparent to the naked eye.

A black light used on a painting to reveal imperfections.Insider

The blacklight is also used to see if an approach to dissolving solvent is working.

A blacklight is used to find holes in the varnish of a painting.Insider

The painting is then cleaned in wider swaths, and the difference between an old, yellowing varnish and the original painting becomes clearer.

Varnish being removed from an old painting.Insider.

Once the painting is clean, old patches and strip linings are removed and replaced.

The owner of Center Art Studio works on the back of the canvas of a painting.Insider

Strip lining is removed from the canvas so it can be re-stretched when finished.

Old strip lining being removed from a painting.Insider

The painting is then re-stretched onto its original stretcher using the same tacks that were removed at the beginning.

A painting being re-stretched onto a wooden frame.I

An isolation varnish is then put onto the newly stretched painting.

An conservator holding a brush puts varnish onto a painting.Insider

A water-based putty is used to fill in cracks in the canvas's surface and is used to even out the surface of the painting.

Putty put onto cracks of a painting.insider

New paint is added to parts of the painting that have been eroded by past cleanings.

A conservator adds new paint to the painting.Insider

Meanwhile, the frame is cleaned and plaster molds of its corners are made to replace the broken parts.

A mold being shaved down to fit the frame.Insider.

With the painting and the frame restored, the two can be combined again for the final product.

Two people lower a painting into a frame.Insider

The finished product demonstrates what can be hiding underneath decades of grime, debris, and nicotine.

A before and after of a restored painting.Insider

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