Marie Antoinette Conservation: Revealing the Controversial Queen's Portrait

My name is Philip Kevan. I'm a conservator. I work mainly on furniture, but also frames, and we're here today to unframe this painting. The first thing we do is I will discuss with the paintings conservator the condition of the painting. Sometimes the paintings have been heavily conserved, and that means that they're easier to handle, there are no issues with frayed edges or problems with the painting. This particular painting has been conserved. A painter's conservator feels it's in a very good and stable condition, so we just go ahead with the unframing. This is an oval frame rather than a square frame, so it can be a little bit more tricky. The first thing we do is place the painting face down, and then we remove the backboard. This frame is not an original frame, but it does look like it's been modified. You can see there's quite a thick, what we call a buildup of wood on the back, and this has been done in order to increase the rebate size to allow for glazing. Typically found within a museum environment, you would find frames modified like this. It has very few fixing holes, so it probably wasn't placed on here very long ago. It's also got a historic label on the backboard which says refitted in 1933, and they're glazed for their protection from the UV light as well. So we're going to unframe in a reverse order. So firstly, what we see is this brown gum tape, and this gum tape is applied to the back in order to give a good dust seal to stop any dust from getting into the painting. Our first step is to try and start removing this. Depending on how old this gum tape is, it can be easy or difficult to get off. I'm using a slotted screwdriver. I may have to introduce some moisture to try and get this off, because it looks like it's pretty well adhesive. We also have a thin section knife which I use sometimes to just get a bit more purchase under there. And by removing this gummed tape, it also gives us access to the screws underneath, which is holding the backboard in position. Try not to use moisture because it can swell the wood on the backboard. Modern backboards are made from hardboard, so it's kind of a modern composite material, but this hardboard is an old plywood hardboard, so it will absorb the moisture, so try and refrain from using the moisture. And also you don't want any moisture getting down close to the painting. So when working around this area, you've got to be careful with the historic label, keeping in mind that it's there and trying to work away from it. As this gum tape gets older, it usually gets easier to remove, but this is pretty well attached. The better to get the gum tape off enough to allow the backboard to be removed, and then remove the excess after when the painting has been removed, rather than introducing moisture too early on. Because this build-up is such a late addition, you wouldn't expect to find anything unusual at this point. Because we tend to paintings tend to be opened a little bit more, maybe for analysis or for study, we tend to see some slight differences, like these slotted screws that I'm just undoing now are normally replaced with a Phillips-type screw. And the reason for that is that they lend themselves more to re-opening and putting in and taking out, whereas the slotted ones tend to chew up quite easily, and they're brass as well, so they're a slightly softer metal. I will be replacing these with a more modern-type screw to make it easier for the next unframing. It's good to be one over here somewhere. Gently prise the backboard up. On the back of the backboard you can see this plastic film. This is a Melinex film. The idea of that is to stop the wood from off-gassing, which does affect the painting. Off-gassing happens with wood where naturally occurring acids within the wood release in the environment they're in, and in this case, in a sealed frame, could be potentially damaging to the painting. So we place a Melinex film on the backboard as a barrier protecting the painting. So once open, we can see the painting on its stretcher, how nicely it's made in different sections. Being an ecliptical shape, they've got to make it in different sections, and these keys then push the stretcher out to give tension on the painting. That's the V&A stamp. I don't think they do that anymore, but at one time they would stamp all the paintings with their collection stamp. They've used a technique where they've got these tiny little brass plates which have been bent into shape, and then they act like a spring, and they're pushing the painting firmly into the rebate in four positions, top, bottom, and on both sides. So these are the next item that needs to be removed, and they're held in with two little screws on either side. So it looks like somebody's had a lot of fun trying to chop out this rebate for the backboard. It's been done by hand. That's interesting. That screw that was quite stubborn is not a screw at all. It doesn't have any cut thread on it. It's just like a pin. That's why it wasn't releasing. As this is not a perfect eclipse, this rebate, they've placed some of this foam and the idea of that is just to hold it snugly in position and stop it from moving. We'll just remove these foam fillets around the edge, and that should allow us to lift the painting down. So with the metal fixings removed and the plaster soap wedges out, that should release the painting. We can lift it straight out of the rebate. The frame appears to be a carved frame and it's been gilded. Probably not contemporary with the painting, but it is an old frame, 18th century frame, been heavily modified in order to take the glass. .