Inside the Louvre: A Restorer's Rare Behind-the-Scenes Visit (Part 1)

This video is about discovery, maybe self-discovery, but I've been given an opportunity to visit some of the most prestigious art museums in Europe and I'm going to take you along with me and show you as much as I can of my travels to Paris. So after dropping our bags at the hotel we quickly made our way to the Latin Quarter and just started to explore Paris. And we ended up near Notre Dame and it was a great opportunity. There was a beautiful sunset and the lights were just beginning to light up the cathedral and we got a bit of a look at some of the restoration work that's been happening there. It looks fabulous I can say. After seeing the footage of the cathedral on fire I didn't know what to expect but it was still just as beautiful and just as impressive as ever. And we also flew by Shakespeare & Co, one of my favourite bookshops in Paris and I'm sure everybody else is too. Back to the hotel, early start tomorrow for my trip to the Louvre. Morning guys. It's a beautiful morning here in Paris. I don't know if you can see, the sun's just rising here and lighting up the lighting, or rather the Louvre in the background. I forgot how stunning it is here. The architecture, the buildings, it's just amazing. I've got about 20 minutes now before I meet the rest of the restorers who have been invited to go to the Louvre. There's a group of us travelling over from England and I'm going to meet them for a coffee. As I said I'm not entirely sure how much I'll be able to capture or how much I'll be able to film. I'll see what I can get for you but hopefully it will just be a great experience and I can tell you all about it after I've been through. So I'm going to go and find the rest of the gang now and get a coffee and a croissant and I will take some pictures of this fabulous scenery. Right, so we've just had a coffee. Look at this light, it's terrible. That's better. So we've just had a coffee and a croissant and now we're just going to head over to the Louvre's restoration department. I'm not sure if it's in the actual Louvre, whether it's downstairs or upstairs. So let's go, let's see what we can see. This is the queue to get inside so hopefully they're going to avoid as much of this as possible. Right guys, I think this is as far as I can take you for now. I'm going to go down these steps. This is the conservation department of the Louvre and I will tell you all about it. If I can grab some sneaky shots I will but invariably I will show you what happens. But yeah, I'm going to have to leave you here for now. So after going through security and reception we were led down a corridor into this giant lift, obviously big enough to take some massive paintings and we were taken to a first floor room. This room had these wonderful windows that were probably, I don't know, 20 foot high. There was painting racks holding paintings to be restored. There was paintings on easels in the process of being restored. And what was interesting was how the French museum system works. So all the museums and art galleries in France send their work to the Louvre to be restored. There it is analysed, they come up with a treatment plan and then it is put out to tender to freelance conservators. And then these teams of conservators will come into the Louvre and restore the paintings. Which is a little bit different to how it works in the UK in the museums industry here or organisations where they will employ or some will employ a restorer or conservation department. Here it was all a little bit different. But I did get the feeling that a lot of the conservation teams were the same. They used the same people and it was quite difficult for maybe new or younger conservators to kind of break into that environment. The tour continued then further into the restoration department and then we were given this brilliant presentation on a recent painting that had taken two years to complete. This was this massive triptych that they had been working on and it was by a student of Van Dyck. These closed to create a case then opened up and there was the most beautiful, beautiful triptych in the middle. Certain elements had been extended and restored. It was by a student of Van Dyck and it was just stunning. They had been working on this for a while and that was quite impressive when they showed us all the different things that happened within this huge painting. This was interesting how they had these huge planned chests with different envelopes in. I think each envelope had documents and information about each artwork. There was lots of fire extinguishers and fire blankets around as well. We were then taken into another restoration room that overlooked the gardens of the Musée de l'Oeuvre and it was just fabulous. This room had a massive bench in. They were facing paintings on there. There were icon paintings in there. There was a number of restorers doing treatments and the level of access they gave us was just absolutely fantastic. And this is where they were doing some strips of tissue paper to face small sections. There was a gentleman taking out tacks along this large painting. This was a huge bench area. There was a kitchen area here and then a bit of a mezzanine up there as well. And on this side here there was a huge window overlooking the gardens to leave and there was a lady retouching a small icon painting and using the retouching pigments very similar to what I use in the studio. It was just interesting the setup there. It was quite open. It was quite relaxed. And then on this side of the bench were the icon paintings. So we were talking about the different techniques they used, the different resins they used and then also a little bit like I mentioned before about how they left some of the damage in there. So it was like a balanced restoration. So some losses are left as part of its history as well. So that was really interesting. And then this was this big massive panel they were working on. So it was 16th century of Venus. They'd x-rayed it and it showed some drapery that had been either added or removed. I can't quite remember what it was now. But what was interesting, they were doing their tests across the painting. So they had small windows. There might be these little windows across the painting in small sections. But then they'd go horizontally all the way across through various different colour tones. So that was really interesting as well. But there was a lot of work. This was seven foot tall. And then these straps were holding the painting onto the easel as well. So that's something that stuck with me a little bit. What really interested me though was how the paintings were presented after they'd been restored. So I was spending a lot of time looking at the backs of pictures, looking how the keys were secured either with nylon or taped in. How they had different fixings on the back to hold the paintings in. Everything was secured, everything was cushioned. There was plexiglass on there and frames out of casings to protect the paintings. And then just studio kind of tips and tricks how the paintings were tied to the easels. And how the whole flow of the paintings coming into the studio and how they seemed to operate in there with the envelopes with all the information in and stuff. It was just really good to get that insider's view how they operate as a restoration studio. It just made me want to come back to my studio and emulate certain aspects of it and tidy up a little bit too. We just spent two hours in the Louvre's restoration department going through some of the projects that they've got on. The procedure that they go through. It was just amazing. There's some fabulous artworks on there. I took some sketches so I'll be able to talk you through some of the sketches. What did surprise me though, my first impression is it's extremely similar to my studio. My studio is just a smaller version of what they've got here. Big white benches, the easels, the lighting. And the way they work, they're just doing the same processes that I do in the studio all the time. And this is what they're doing at the Louvre. It was just incredible. I will talk more about it later. The lady, the head restorer there, was just so engaging and she was really helpful and answered all our questions. But yeah, come away with loads of inspiration, loads of ideas as well. So yeah, very, very worthwhile trip. It's a beautiful day here in Paris now. And yes, I'm going to head into the Louvre and I will show you some of their collection as well. Guys, I'm in the Louvre now and I'm going to head up to level 2. This is where there's the Vermeer's Lace Maker which is one of my favourite paintings of all time. So, unless I get lost, I'm going to take you up there now and I'll show you the Vermeer. Unfortunately, the gallery section I wanted to go to is closed and it's only closed for today. It's open tomorrow, closed today, typical. So I'm heading to see the Mona Lisa. But first, I get to walk through this fantastic room which is called the Galerie de Palo. And it is just, everything is gilded. Everything is covered in gold leaf. It's the most incredible room ever. And then we've got all the paintings of kings on the walls as well. So this must have been an old state room. Let me flip you around and show you these. Here's Louis XIV. Little did I know that this room would be the one that was targeted when there was the Paris heist which probably happened maybe a week or so after I returned. So all those cabinets there had the jewels in that were stolen and some of these photographs here were probably the last time they were photographed before they disappeared forever which is such a crying shame. I really hope they get that jewellery back. But it was just quite funny when I came back home and then saw the heist and all the news and all the footage and it just seemed quite strange that we'd only been there just a week or so before and had been given all that access as well. And no, I didn't have anything to do with it. This fantastic icon painting by Francesco de Stefano is on display and we've just seen the icon paintings in the restoration department being restored. So I've probably met the restorer who restored this painting or touched up any. What's really interesting with these icon paintings is that any damage from the church or its history is left so if there's candle marks or burns they will leave them in place as part of the paintings history and story. So these are so cool. Restoration on here. You can see where it's been retouched in the past across all these crack lines. Now the majority of these paintings are 15th century so some of them are the best part of 550 years old and the quality, the actual quality of the condition that they're in is just fantastic. They're protected and in a museum environment but the colours, it's just so rich. They're amazing. Right guys, here's the Mona Lisa room. Let's see if we can see the painting or do we just see a thousand camera phones in the air? Let's have a look. Let me flip you around. Right guys, that's me coming out of the Louvre there. It's been a very long day. Hopefully I got to show you something interesting and you saw some bits of some nice paintings in there. It is such a fabulous venue. I mean, just the sheer scale of it is enormous. Absolutely. So if you are coming here, I would recommend studying that map because I took quite a few wrong turns as well. So I'm here for another day and I've got another location to share with you tomorrow. So now I'm going to go find some food, relax, put my feet up and yes, we've got another restoration destination tomorrow. Okay guys, see you soon.