In 2005, Abbie conducted the pilot phase of a Surface Cleaning project organised by the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and the Instituut Collectie Nederland, Amsterdam. This formed the basis for her 3rd Year Research Project.

The Effect of Selected Materials Used to Clean Unvarnished Paintings aimed to define guidelines for the use of various materials for surface cleaning unvarnished paintings. The following cleaning agents were tested on three 20th-century oil paintings: saliva, an ammonium hydroxide solution (pH 8–8.5), triammonium citrate (TAC) and sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP). The chelating agents were used at a range of concentrations, and preliminary tests were performed at a range of pH. The surface topography of the paint before and after cleaning was examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Swabs used to apply the cleaning agents were analysed with SEM/EDX to determine what type of material was removed during cleaning. An attempt was made to detect citrate residues using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

A summary of the findings was presented at the Gerry Hedley Student Symposium, and published in the preprints. A more extensive investigation into surface cleaning unvarnished paintings has been published in Studies in Conservation, Vol. 52, No. 4:

An investigation of parameters for the use of citrate solutions for surface cleaning unvarnished paintings
Authors: Rachel Morrison, Abigail Bagley-Young, Aviva Burnstock, Klaas Jan van den Berg and Henk van Keulen

For more information, please contact Abbie.