Art Conservation: Science, Art, and Career​

Who is asking?

10th- and 11th-grade chemistry students at Birmingham Community Charter High School in Lake Balboa, California. Students wrote these questions after exploring the conservation of The Blue Boy.

Who is answering?

Christina O’Connell is The Huntington’s senior paintings conservator. ​She received her master’s degree in art conservation with a concentration in paintings from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. Since 2013, she has worked at The Huntington, where she developed the first paintings conservation program. O’Connell has been in the field of conservation for almost 20 years, treating and studying paintings from the 15th to the 20th century.​

Tools, Technology, and Techniques​

What special materials are needed to conserve a painting? Which tool is your favorite, and why? ​

A conservator needs to consider the original materials and their condition when approaching treatment. There is no formula to conservation work, and the materials vary from painting to painting. A conservator must have knowledge of adhesives, solvents, resins, and polymers and how to appropriately use them when making treatment decisions. When it comes to adding new colors where the original is damaged or missing, a conservator chooses paints that can be easily removed later. Making steps of the treatment reversible or easily re-treatable helps preserve the painting.​

If I had to pick one favorite tool, I’d choose the microscope. Understanding a painting begins with looking carefully at its many layers. Magnification is often necessary to view details you might not see otherwise, and a truly up-close look is quite amazing.​

How long does it take to carefully study an art piece and gather the necessary information to conserve it? How long does the conservation process take?​

This is another situation that varies from painting to painting. The study of a painting depends on the quality and quantity of historic records, the condition of the painting, and how the artist made the work of art. Written and photographic records can provide a good initial understanding. If there are no records, a conservator relies on forensic investigation to understand the materials, decipher a painting’s history, and determine the best approach for treatment. ​

The conservation process includes more than treatment. Conservators start with examination to understand the work of art. Conservators also create written and photographic records of the examination and the treatment for a painting so that future conservators and curators can understand the construction and condition of a painting and know what occurred during treatment. The amount of time it takes for conservation varies with each project.​

How does the painting dictate the conservation process? What was the most important thing to consider when conducting the art conservation of The Blue Boy?​

The conservation process is planned to address the specific condition of each painting. The work is guided by the original materials as well as past conservation materials that are present. ​

For the conservation of The Blue Boy, the same careful approach to understanding the painting and its history was undertaken. Paintings are composite objects made up of many layers, and a good understanding of the materials is critical.

​How difficult was it to conserve this painting? Did you make any mistakes that you subsequently had to fix? If a conservator makes a mistake, can it be fixed? How?​

The Blue Boy exhibited condition issues that are common to paintings of a similar age. These were also condition issues that I’ve had a lot of experience treating. That said, a conservator doesn’t relax into a formulaic approach to treating a painting. It’s necessary to constantly watch each layer and each section as the treatment process proceeds. Anyone that visited Project Blue Boy to watch the treatment process may have observed that I used tiny brushes to apply adhesives under lifting flakes of paint, small swabs to apply solvents in discrete areas to remove old and discolored varnishes, and more tiny brushes to apply the new conservation paints to areas where the original paints were damaged or missing. This provided me with precision and control over the process. If something wasn’t proceeding as it should, I could stop immediately to prevent harm to the painting.​

There is always the potential for mistakes; that’s the human factor. It’s one of the reasons why conservators use materials with reversibility in mind. For example, if the color isn’t a perfect match during inpainting, the color can be adjusted or removed. Handling creates a risk, so staff is trained on proper handling to reduce risk.

During restoration, do you use the same materials as the original artist, or do you use modern materials?​

During the restoration phase, where new conservation colors are added to address damages to the original paint, conservators use materials that are reversible or re-treatable. The conservation paints that I used for The Blue Boy are not the same that Gainsborough used. He used pigments bound in oil, and I used pigments bound in a synthetic resin that will match the surrounding original paint in color, texture, and opacity. The paints I used are easily distinguished from the original, and they are removable later. Before I add any new colors, I first apply a layer of varnish. Varnishes are a clean coating that protects the original surface and visually saturates the colors. This protects the original surface, saturates the colors so that I can accurately match them, and provides a layer that separates conservation colors from the original paint.​

How has art conservation changed over the decades, especially with new technologies? ​

The need to care for art and perform some sort of repair has been around for a long time. The approach that we take for conservation today evolved over time. It has become more systematic and scientific, and guidelines of practice and a code of ethics have been developed to inform our work. Essentially, a conservator should do no harm. The goal is to respect the original work and approach it as a whole artifact. The focus isn’t solely on how something looks; preserving the technology of how something was made is important, too.​

Many advances in technology, in regard to analytical equipment, mean that we can gather more detailed data or get better-quality images. Just think about how cellphones have evolved over recent decades. Conservators can now use digital X-rays that don’t require film that has to be developed with chemicals. Infrared equipment used to be more cumbersome, and the images weren’t as clear as what we can achieve today. When it comes to taking a sample for analysis, the equipment today is more sensitive, and samples taken from art can be even smaller while still providing good data. ​

How is new technology for art conservation developed?​

The field of conservation is relatively small, so conservators often look broadly for technology that can be applied to our work. We often look at tools and equipment that are used in life sciences or the medical field.​

There are some varnishes, paints, adhesives, and tools that have been developed by conservators that line up with the specific needs for our profession, but we often look for what else might be available. ​

How much does conservation cost?​

This is a good question, but it can be a difficult one to answer. Setting up a museum lab for conservation costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Individual conservation projects range in cost depending on the materials, equipment, and expertise required for the project. The cost of a conservator’s time, materials (such as conservation paints), and equipment (such as specialty microscopes) can make conservation projects quite expensive. Think of the many years of specialized training and the amount of work involved. This is why many institutions have conservators on staff, and there are often opportunities to support projects through grant funding.​

The Science of Art Conservation​

How important is angling the light to the painting?​

When examining, treating, and documenting the painting, photography and work lights are angled to reduce the potential for glare off the varnished surface.​

Sometimes we alter the angle of the light to better see and document surface features. For instance, raking light images are taken by placing lamps at an oblique angle from one side of the painting. This emphasizes the surface texture, and conservators can document details about the strokes of paint or condition problems, such as areas where the paint is lifting from the surface.​

Does any light used during the conservation process (X-ray, infrared, and ultraviolet light) damage the painting in any way? Since X-rays can be harmful to humans, are they harmful to the painting’s layers and old paint? How do you mitigate this?​

Light damage is cumulative. The amount of time that a painting is exposed to radiation—such as X-rays, infrared, or ultraviolet—during study is minimal. Some wavelengths, such as ultraviolet, can cause varnishes to discolor or light-sensitive pigments to fade. Museums try to filter ultraviolet light when works of art are on display, and the amount of time that a conservator needs UV light is relatively short.​

Watch a fun video from the Art Institute of Chicago on how art conservators figure out a painting’s original colors.​

How high can you go on the electromagnetic energy/frequency spectrum without the work becoming too dangerous, either for the painting or for you? Are there frequencies that would not be helpful due to extremely high energy or energy that is too weak? ​
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How do the different light frequencies bring out specific objects? For example, why can we only see the dog under infrared light?​
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Typically, a conservator uses multiple analytical techniques to understand the structure and materials for a painting, because each technique can provide different data. X-rays will penetrate all the layers of a painting and it’s possible to see changes, such as the dog, or damages, such as the tear in the original canvas. Gainsborough used lead white to paint the dog, making it easily visible in the X-ray.​

The dog is also visible with infrared. The infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum will interact with materials by either absorbing or reflecting the infrared light. Conservators often use infrared light to study preparatory layers because the materials that artists commonly use to sketch out a design often absorb infrared. For The Blue Boy, infrared shows a bold preparatory stroke on the left side of the boy’s body. This stroke was applied by Gainsborough as he was mapping out the initial composition for the painting, and it isn’t visible from the surface. Infrared also makes it possible to see exactly how Gainsborough applied details of foliage and rocks to cover up the dog when he decided to paint over it.​

Art Conservation Careers​

How long does it take to finish studying studio art, art history, and chemistry to become a certified art conservator?​

I can speak about the path of pursuing one of the U.S.-based training programs. One needs preliminary coursework in studio art to develop hand skills, art history to understand historical context, and the sciences, particularly chemistry, to understand art and conservation materials. This experience is often obtained with a four-year undergraduate degree with a major in one of the described areas. Each graduate program has slightly different prerequisites, and details can be found on their websites.​

The art conservation graduate programs are three to four years long with one of those years spent in an applied internship. It’s common for early-career conservators to spend a few years after graduation in internships or fellowships.​

​Do some universities offer art conservation as a specific major? ​

There are not many opportunities to major in art conservation as an undergraduate. Completing the prerequisite course work for graduate school admission can be undertaken at many universities. One doesn’t have to focus on getting an undergraduate degree in conservation to pursue the field.​

The American Institute for Conservation (AIC) offers some resources for entering the field of conservation: https://www.culturalheritage.org/about-conservation/become-a-conservator​

To pursue a graduate degree in art conservation, there are several opportunities in North America and abroad. Here’s a link to AIC’s list of schools that participate in the Association of North American Graduate Programs: https://www.culturalheritage.org/about-conservation/become-a-conservator/graduate​

​Are there any classes for art conservation or any volunteer work?​

Many universities offer museum studies courses or programs. They provide an understanding of the many roles in museum work, including conservator, registrar, or curator.​

When someone is interested in a career in conservation, there can be volunteer or internship opportunities at museums, regional conservation centers, or private conservation firms.​