Restoration and Conservation

Our team of conservators and conservation technicians plays a vital role at the National Gallery of Canada.

Each year in the Restoration and Conservation Laboratory, our team examines nearly 2,000 items in various media, ranging from paintings and sculptures to frames, decorative art and much more.

This essential work ensures that objects are preserved for the benefit of present and future generations. Some objects are explored in greater depth, researched and restored to allow them to be clearly understood, and returned to an apparence close to their original state.

Learn more about some of the team’s exciting projects on this page, and follow a few of the objects that are keeping them busy in the lab.

Featured Videos

NGC House Blend – August 6

Listen in as Marie-Catherine Cyr, Assistant Conservator of Paintings, talks about the main conservation challenges the team encountered during the pandemic.

 

NGC House Blend – May 14, 2020

NGC Senior Conservator of Contemporary Art, Geneviève Saulnier, speaks about the many surprises she has encountered when it comes to preserving contemporary works of art.

 

Restoring The Empress Josephine Marble Bust

Watch how our conservation team prepared the marble bust Empress Josephine, by Joseph Chinard, for its big moment at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

 

What a "pochade" is?

Pochades are small paintings, typically produced rapidly by an artist working outdoors. Learn more about their conservation with Stephen Gritt, Director of Conservation and Technical Research.

 

Restoration and Conservation: Woolsey's Cup

Follow the journey of the Woolsey Family's Caudle Cup, from acquisition to presentation in the Canadian and Indigenous Galleries. 

 

Restoring Ron Moppett's Whatif/Twilight

Learn more about an exceptional restoration treatment for the centrepiece to Ron Moppett's polyptych Whatif/Twilight, which had been submerged during the 2013 Calgary floods.

 

View more videos

Featured Content

Program stuudent Tirza Harris in the RCL lab at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2021
In the Spotlight

Different perspectives: diversity in art conservation

The NGC's Conservation Internship for Diversity aims to support and increase the representation of conservation professionals from diverse communities.
February 11, 2022
Jean-Siméon Chardin, The Governess , 1739. Oil on canvas
Your Collection

Chardin and Social Commentary in 18th-century France

In the late 1730s, Chardin conceived two genre paintings as a pair that depict day-to-day domestic interactions on different social levels.
November 18, 2021
In the Spotlight

Why We Like to Touch Art, and Why We Shouldn’t

The Gallery is continually assessing ways of bringing visitors closer to the art, while ensuring the safety of the works in its care.
August 20, 2020
Your Collection

Philips Wouwerman: Quiet Reflection and Scientific Investigation

Changes to an old master work of art can be difficult to assess, but recent conservation work on Wouwerman's painting was aided by the existence of a French print.
July 9, 2020
In the Spotlight

Coping with Changes: a Work by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione

By unravelling the causes and effects of changes that have transformed the appearance of a work of art over time, one can re-discover the original integrity of the work.
July 3, 2020
In the Spotlight

Picture in Its Proper Frame: Quinten Massys and Framing in the 16th Century

Dating to the early 16th century, Quinten Massys’ painting of the Crucifixion is being given a new frame that is contemporary to the period when the Flemish master created it.
May 27, 2020