Restoration of Early, Modern and Contemporary Paintings in Paris
A painting does not fail all at once. The varnish darkens, the canvas slackens, the paint layer begins to lift — and the work goes out slowly, with no telling when it started. More often than not, it is in taking a painting down that one notices.
These pictures have been coming to À L’Atelier for twenty-six years: the family portrait and the large marine alike, the seventeenth-century canvas and yesterday's acrylic. Each arrives with its own history of keeping, and that history has to be read before anything at all is touched.
What À L’Atelier takes on
Yellowed, darkened or blanched varnish
Varnish is a protective layer laid over the paint, meant to be renewed. As it ages it oxidizes: skies close up, glazes go dead, blues turn green. Damp, for its part, veils it white — this is blanching. In either case it is reduced in stages, after solubility tests, and never down to the paint layer.
Craquelure and flaking
Craquelure belongs to the work and is not removed. What is treated is the moment its edges lift and a flake threatens to go: the paint layer is then reattached to its ground, flake by flake, before anything else is undertaken.
Tears, punctures and lining
A torn canvas is rejoined thread by thread along its break; full lining is undertaken only when the support can no longer carry the paint. That is a decision, not a reflex: an original canvas is never replaced twice.
Losses and illusionistic retouching
Where matter has gone, the loss is filled level with the neighboring paint, then reintegrated. The retouch must vanish to the eye and remain legible under a magnifier or raking light — that is the rule, and it is what separates a restoration from an overpaint.
Damp, mold and tidelines
Water damage, a cold wall, a cellar or an attic: damp leaves tidelines, slackens the canvas and settles micro-organisms that go on working until they are stopped. The urgent thing is to stabilize; the look of it comes after.
Old overpaint and period restorations
Many early paintings carry the marks of earlier restorations, often spreading beyond the loss and darker than the original. Their removal is weighed case by case: some have become part of the work's history and are kept.
Work carried out
Real commissions, photographed as they came in and as they left.
Worth knowing
My painting is very dirty. Is that serious?
Surface grime — smoke, greasy dust, soot from a fireplace — does not attack the paint and responds well. What gives more cause for concern is lifting paint, a canvas that feels soft to the touch, or a smell of mildew: those grow worse on their own.
The painting has no market value. Is it worth it?
That is yours to judge, and value is not always the market's. À L’Atelier restores as many family paintings as works by masters, and holds both to the same standard. The condition report and estimate being free of charge on the premises, the question can be asked without obligation.
Can a contemporary painting be restored?
Yes, and it is often more delicate than an early one: acrylics, flat matte grounds, granular surfaces and supports that react to water leave no room for approximation. Such works call for research beforehand, sometimes lengthy, before a single intervention.
Talk to me about your work
The condition report and the estimate are free of charge at À L’Atelier, and commit you to nothing. Describe the work — artist, support, period, dimensions — and its condition, and we will arrange a time.
Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. — by appointment only
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