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- Condition reporting at the Royal Academy of Arts
- Detail during cleaning. Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Elizabeth I, Trinity College, Cambridge
- Conservation of Over the Top by Gilbert Rogers in preparation for exhibition. Wellcome Library, London
- as above
- Condition checking in the Northern European Galleries, Compton Verney
- Detail during cleaning, Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, A Boy Aged Two, Compton Verney
- Detail after restoration, Joos van Cleve, Virgin and Child with Peach. With kind permission, The Wernher Collection at Ranger’s House, English Heritage.
Conservation Work and Projects
Royal Academy of Arts
From 1982 to present
Our role at The Royal Academy has been to advise on the long-term care of the Collection, covering all aspects of the preservation of paintings including preventive conservation, display, storage, packing and the environment. We have undertaken full conservation treatments on many of the paintings by founder members such as Gainsborough, Turner, Constable and those by the Victorian and Edwardian Academicians. Increasingly twentieth century and contemporary paintings require careful assessment and preventive conservation, as the Collection continues to grow.
As exhibitions conservators we have worked on all the paintings exhibitions since 1982, including The Glory of Venice, Pop Art, The Real Van Gogh, Hockney and Manet, and on invited works in the Annual Summer Exhibition, in compliance with Government Indemnity requirements.
Government Art Collection
From 1982 to present
We work regularly on-site at the Government Art Collection, providing condition assessments and treating paintings selected for display and loan in British Government offices and residences in the UK and worldwide. Cleaning and restoration, as well as structural conservation treatments are carried out in the studio. We have been involved in the recent programme of conservation for the series of Government Art Collection exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery in 2011-2012.
Compton Verney, Warwickshire
From 1997 to present
Our survey of the oil paintings collection of some sixty works led to a rolling programme of treatments to over thirty paintings for the opening of the art gallery in 2004. The survey and programme were developed in close collaboration with a frame conservator. New acquisitions ranging from 16th century German panels by Cranach to works by 18th century Neapolitan artists such as Luca Giordano and Pietro Fabris were treated. The collection is monitored annually and condition reports are compiled as requested for national and international loans.
Trinity College, Cambridge
From 2005 to present
A survey of the paintings was carried out in 2005, leading to a rolling programme of restoration of six to eight paintings annually. During 2008 – 2009, six full-length portraits by Reynolds, Lawrence and Kneller from the Old Combination Room were cleaned and restored.
Leighton House Museum
From 1995 to present
In 2008 a detailed survey of the collection of paintings and their frames at Leighton House was undertaken in collaboration with a frame conservator in order to develop a rolling conservation programme. A number of paintings by Lord Leighton were restored for loan to the Villa Stuck, Munich and the re-opening of Leighton House in April 2010.
The Royal College of Physicians
From 2003 to present
For a short period each year a small number of paintings are examined out of their frames on site at the Royal College of Physicians. This forms part of an on-going survey of the picture collection. The aim is to make sure that each painting has a detailed condition report, identifying urgent conservation problems and making proposals for future treatments. Each painting undergoes minor preventive conservation and is refitted in the frame to museum standards. The survey assists in creating a programme of conservation. Any major treatments to the paintings and their frames are carried out in the studio.
English Heritage
In 2001 we carried out full conservation and restoration treatments in the studio on a number of paintings from the Wernher Collection for Ranger's House. Over the last few years we have conserved and restored several paintings for Apsley House, including full-length portraits for the Dining Room.
Wellcome Trust
In 2003 - 2004 a survey of all the paintings and frames was undertaken prior to the movement of the collection to new storage facilities. Four large early 20th century paintings by Frederick Cayley Robinson 'Acts of Mercy' and ‘Doctors’ were conserved in 2009, prior to being exhibited at the National Gallery. Full conservation treatments of paintings from the collection are carried out in the studio. The two‘Doctors’ are currently on display in the Wellcome Library and the two ‘Acts of Mercy’ are on display in University College London Hospital Cancer Centre.
All Saints Church, Margaret Street, London
In 2011 we were contracted by Taylor Pearce Conservation to surface clean and conserve 58 paintings by Sir Ninian Comper in the chancel at All Saints Church, Margaret Street. The project formed part of the third phase of restoration of the interior of the church, which is one of the foremost examples of High Victorian Gothic architecture in Britain.