Go behind the scenes at the Gallery

Behind the scenes in Conservation

Britta New shows how science and new technology improve our understanding of the changes that were made to Rubens's 'Judgement of Paris' over its lifetime.

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: A closer look at Pesellino

Marvel at Pesellino's mastery of gold and silver in the newly restored 'Story of David' panels and follow the clues that suggest the panels were owned by the Medici family

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Reuniting 400-year-old marriage portraits

See how the team reunited Frans Hals's portraits of a husband and wife, after two centuries of being apart

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: The gory story of 'The Judgement of Zaleucus'

Britta New discusses the conservation of a 16th-century panel from the William Morris Gallery which depicts a gruesome tale

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Solving the mystery of a Frans Hals portrait

How did the discovery of a monster and skull hidden beneath this painting reveal the identity of the sitter?

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Cleaning Paolo Uccello's 'The Battle of San Romano'

Restorer Paul Ackroyd talks us through some of the challenges he's encountered while working with Uccello's 15th-century battlefield scene

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: The Ugly Duchess

Britta New reveals surprising discoveries about 'The Ugly Duchess' and how the painting links Leonardo da Vinci to 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'

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Room 14: One room, 26 paintings : Behind the scenes of an Early Renaissance rehang

Curator Laura Llewellyn works with art handlers to arrange and hang a selection of 15th-century Italian paintings in Room 14

Video, suitable for key stage 5 and key stage 4

Restoring Piero della Francesca's 'The Nativity'

Following its three-year conservation treatment, Jill Dunkerton reveals some surprising discoveries about Piero della Francesca’s stunning ‘Nativity’

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Why it takes two days to move a 500-year-old altarpiece: Behind the scenes

Find out, in a rare chance to see our art handlers at work before the Gallery opens, how the team moves a huge, very heavy, 500-year-old altarpiece

Video, suitable for key stage 3, key stage 4 and key stage 5

Behind the scenes in Conservation: How we uncovered the secrets of the Gallery’s oldest painting

Learn about the surprising discoveries which were revealed during the restoration of Margarito d’Arezzo’s 'Virgin and Child Enthroned'

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: A sky of 500-year-old fingerprints

Larry Keith retouches a recently repaired panel painting by Piero di Cosimo, and reveals the marks this Renaissance artist left in his work

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Cleaning Constable's 'The Hay Wain'

Paul Ackroyd reveals some of 'The Hay Wain's' hidden details which have been brought to life through cleaning

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Cleaning Reynolds' 'Captain Robert Orme'

Hayley Tomlinson reveals why paintings by Reynolds are notoriously difficult to clean

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Displaying 'The Red Boy'

Follow the newly-cleaned 'Red Boy's' journey from the Conservation Studio to the Gallery walls

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Restoring Piero della Francesca's 'Nativity'

Caroline Campbell and Jill Dunkerton discuss the conservation of Piero della Francesca's miraculous Christmas scene

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Cleaning 150-year-old varnish from a Frans Hals portrait

Paul Ackroyd cleans a portrait that has not been restored since 1876

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: A first look at 'The Red Boy'

Paul Ackroyd introduces Lawrence's 'Red Boy' – a work so popular it was the first-ever painting to feature on a British postage stamp

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Cleaning the 'lost altarpiece'

Britta New and Nelly von Aderkas discuss the cleaning of a Renaissance altarpiece that was hidden in an Italian wood store for many years

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: The unfashionable artist who inspired Van Gogh

Kristina Mandy discusses Adolphe Monticelli, an artist admired in his lifetime, who inspired Van Gogh's famous 'Sunflowers', but who later fell out of fashion

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Restoring an 'undisplayable' painting: Part two

Kendall Francis and Larry Keith discuss the restoration of a work with a 'snowstorm' of painting loss

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Restoring Botticelli's 'Adoration of the Kings': Part three

Jill Dunkerton and Marta Melchiorre ask, how can we identify Botticelli's hand from that of his assistant, Filippino Lippi's?

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Restoring Botticelli's 'Adoration of the Kings': Part two

Watch Jill Dunkerton as she retouches a Renaissance masterpiece

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Retouching Rubens's 'Het Steen'

After months of restoration, Larry Keith unveils the newly retouched 'Het Steen' in the Conservation Studio

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Restoring Botticelli's 'Adoration of the Kings': Part one

Jill Dunkerton and Britta New find out what was hiding beneath a frame for nearly two centuries

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: The Gallery during lockdown

Peek behind our closed doors, with Larry Keith

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Reuniting Rubens's beloved landscapes

After centuries apart, two Rubens masterpieces will be brought back together. We go behind the scenes to find out more

Video, suitable for key stage 3, key stage 4 and key stage 5

Behind the scenes in Conservation: A structural repair of Rubens's 'Het Steen'

How will Britta New meet the challenge of repairing Rubens's fragile panel which has survived centuries' worth of restorations and one very severe frost?

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Cleaning Rubens's 'Het Steen'

Find out what Larry Keith discovered when he removed 75 years’ worth of discoloured varnish from Rubens’s 'Het Steen'

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Behind the scenes in Conservation : Restoring the Gallery's oldest painting

Kristina Mandy shows the steps involved in restoring a painting that is over 750-years-old

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Chemistry of colour : Red lakes

Discover how red pigments originate from the cochineal beetle

Video, suitable for key stage 5

Dolphins and winged lions return as our largest room reopens

Find out more about Room 32's major renovation programme made possible through the generous support of Julia and Hans Rausing, after whom the gallery has been named

Article, suitable for key stage 3, key stage 4 and key stage 5

A king-sized restoration project

Watch how it took a small army of people to clean, repair and restore one of our largest paintings, Van Dyck's 'Equestrian Portrait of Charles I'

Video, suitable for key stage 3, key stage 4 and key stage 5

Restoring Artemisia

Learn about the restoration of one of our highlight paintings, by Artemisia Gentileschi

The lost altarpiece

How would Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks have looked in its original setting?

Restoring an 'undisplayable' painting: Part one

Larry Keith reveals an exciting discovery about Piazzetta's unfinished work, 'The Sacrifice of Isaac', and explains the plan for the painting's restoration

Chemistry of colour : Malachite

Journey through a spectrum of colours with our Scientific Department as we explore some of the different pigments used in our paintings

100 years of the Photographic Department: Part Two

Walk through 100 years of photography, looking at some of the Photographic team’s favourite images from the archive

100 years of the Photographic Department: Part One: A history

In the first part of our centenary celebrations, we look at how the team has evolved over the last 100 years

Relining Van Dyck's Equestrian Portrait of Charles I: A project supported by the Getty Foundation

Sharing knowledge with international colleagues

Unlocking Leonardo

15 years after discovering a hidden drawing beneath Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks, we uncover more of the mystery

Complex conservation: An altarpiece in need of attention

One of the most complex structural conservation projects in the history of the Gallery: Giovanni Martini da Udine’s ‘The Virgin and Child with Saints’

The Restoration of Rosa Bonheur’s The Horse Fair

Conservator Hayley Tomlinson takes us behind the scenes to discuss the cleaning of Rosa Bonheur’s ‘The Horse Fair’

Learn how our Scientific Department identifies pigments, and watch how they are mixed to make paint.

Video, suitable for key stage 5

Behind the scenes in Framing

The Framing Department reveals the richness and importance of the collection’s frames.

A blonde's dark secret

How a seductive beauty changed into a demure lady, 300 years after she was painted

Restoring the Raising of Lazarus

Restorer Jill Dunkerton discusses the restoration of Wtewael's masterpiece, The Raising of Lazarus, from the Wycombe Museum.

Portrait of Alexander Mornauer

This portrait was given a complete makeover in the 18th century. But why, and by whom?

Under van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait

See how infrared reflectography reveals a hidden masterpiece beneath van Eyck’s famous Arnolfini Portrait.

Paintings in depth: Verrocchio unveiled

Discover how conservation work helped to identify two works by Leonardo’s teacher, Andrea del Verrocchio.

Watch how gold leaf is applied to surfaces, and explore the frames of some of our most significant paintings.

Video, suitable for key stage 5