Services & Expertise

Conservation

Annika Roy works on old master, modern, and contemporary paintings on a wide range of supports and formats, including wooden panels, canvas, copper, and cardboard, with particular expertise in panel paintings. She treats easel paintings and painted objects, and also participates in team-based projects involving murals or large-format paintings treated on site.

The choice and extent of treatment are determined by the artwork’s condition and its display context.

Interventions may include stabilization (consolidation of flaking or lifting paint layers, repair of tears), cleaning (surface dust removal, treatment of biological contamination and infestations, removal of grime, removal of aged varnishes and overpaints), aesthetic improvement (filling of losses, retouching, varnishing) and preventive and protective measures (protective backings for canvas paintings, improvements to framing systems).

Particular attention is paid to framing, including secure mounting systems, appropriate wedges, and safe hanging devices.

Annika Roy regularly collaborates with conservators from other specialties — such as furniture, sculpture, paper and textile — on complex, multi-material objects when required.

Panoptique d’Autun, musée Rolin — Fixing of up-lifted paint.Panoptique d’Autun, musée Rolin — Fixing of up-lifted paint.
Removal of yellowed varnish.Removal of yellowed varnish.
Antwerp, The Phoebus Foundation — Retouching of fills.Antwerp, The Phoebus Foundation — Retouching of fills.
Consolidation of a tear in the canvas.Consolidation of a tear in the canvas.
Collection musée de Sens — Retouches of reconstructed ornaments and local gilding.Collection musée de Sens — Retouches of reconstructed ornaments and local gilding.

Annika Roy’s combined expertise in paintings and gilded wood conservation enables her to treat gilded frames, gilded and polychrome wooden furniture, and historic architectural woodwork.

The conservation of gilded wood objects involves a range of treatments adapted to each artwork, including cleaning (dust removal and treatment of biological contamination and infestations), structural and surface stabilization (consolidation of wooden supports and decorative layers), aesthetic treatment (removal of dirt and old repainting, filling losses in gesso, reconstruction of missing ornaments, retouching with color or gold leaf).

Respect for the original gold leaf and its visual enhancement guide all conservation decisions.

Grime removal of the gilded surface.Grime removal of the gilded surface.
Retouching with white gold powder.Retouching with white gold powder.
Gilder’s cushion.Gilder’s cushion.

Annika Roy participates in the installation and deinstallation of temporary exhibitions in museums in France and abroad, producing condition reports as required.

Drawing on her expertise in art technology, she carries out in-depth technical studies, including mapping of materials, techniques, and alterations using digital tools, and microscopic photographic documentation.
These studies may be commissioned in preparation for a conservation project or prior to the acquisition of an artwork.

When necessary, she collaborates with specialized laboratories for scientific analysis and imaging of heritage materials, particularly for the study of paint layer stratigraphy.

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Annika Roy is involved in research projects in partnership with cultural heritage institutions. She has developed particular expertise in painted wooden figures (dummy boards), a field with limited existing documentation, through her Master’s research and a research project conducted in Sweden with the support of the Carnot Foundation and the Institut national du patrimoine.

This research is ongoing and is intended to be disseminated through academic publications and presentations at international conferences.

Publication :

Roy, A., « Parole retrouvée d’une compagne silencieuse. Étude et conservation-restauration de La Dame au masque », Patrimoines, n°16, 2021, pp. 80-186.

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