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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About

In this episode, Larry Keith, Head of Conservation meets Alice Martin from Chatsworth House to discuss how the team conserved two marriage portraits by Frans Hals, brought back together for The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Frans Hals.

The 400-year-old portraits were separated for nearly two centuries, and now reside in different collections: The Barber Institute of Fine Arts and the Devonshire Collections at Chatsworth.

The Credit Suisse Exhibition

30 September 2023 – 21 January 2024

Discover one of the greatest portrait painters in Western art.

Watch previous episodes in the series:

Behind the scenes in Conservation

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?

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

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

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

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

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'

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

Behind the scenes in Conservation

Cleaning Reynolds' 'Captain Robert Orme'

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

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

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

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

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

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

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

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

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

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

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

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

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

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

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

Video

Restoring an 'undisplayable' painting: Part one

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

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

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

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

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

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

Behind the scenes in Conservation

Restoring Botticelli's 'Adoration of the Kings': Part two

Watch Jill Dunkerton as she retouches a Renaissance masterpiece

Video

Behind the scenes in Conservation

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?

Video