Oil / 02
Plate to be scanned
Young Barber Cutting Beard
- Condition
- Torn canvas; heavily yellowed varnish.
- Treatment
- Cleaned, lined onto new backing canvas, retouched and re-varnished.
Plate 01 · Oil on canvas · Treated 2023
Under the varnish, the picture is still there.
A century of oxidised varnish had turned this winter morning into dusk. Nothing was repainted. The film was removed, and the daylight underneath came back.
Before
After
Winter Scene, Man & Woman with Sheep
Yellowed natural resin varnish, surface grime, minor cupping. Varnish removed, losses retouched, re-varnished with a reversible synthetic.
- Free quotation
- Price never increases once quoted
- Written condition report
- Photographed at every stage
- Returned inside six weeks
- Off-street parking
The treatment
Everything we do can be undone.
Conservation is not repainting. Every material we use is reversible, so a future restorer can take our work off without touching the artist's.
Examined
The report comes first
The work is photographed and its condition written down before anything is touched. You get a copy, and a fixed price. Tears, flaking, water damage, smoke, mould and old overpaint are all assessed at this stage.
Treated
Varnish, lining, retouching
Discoloured varnish is removed under solvent control. Torn canvases are lined onto a new support. Losses are filled and retouched in reversible media — never over original paint.
Recorded
Photographs you can use
Every job leaves with a before-and-after record. Galleries and framers are welcome to publish those photographs under their own business name.
The archive
Sixty-five years of before and after.
A working record of treated pieces, added to as work leaves the studio. Each entry carries its own comparison and its condition notes.
Watercolour / 01
Plate to be scanned
Couple with Cattle in Storm
- Condition
- Foxing and acid burn from a wood-pulp backing board.
- Treatment
- Washed, deacidified, re-hinged onto conservation board.
Watercolour / 02
Plate to be scanned
Landscape with Trees, Hills & Water
- Condition
- Light-struck and faded; tide line across the sky.
- Treatment
- Surface cleaned, stain reduced, remounted behind UV glazing.
The studio
Three generations at the same bench.
Edmund and Margaret Valentin work by appointment from a private, secure studio in Hawthorn. Edmund has restored full time since 1974.
1957
Dr. Valentin — museum director, artist and restorer — arrives in Australia.
1959
The restoration business begins.
1968
Commissioned to paint 64 portraits for St. Anthony's Shrine, Hawthorn. First edition of The Art of The Restorer published.
1973
Edmund Valentin begins restoring alongside his father.
1976
An exhibition on restoration is held at the Hawthorn City Gallery.
1978
Edmund attends the ICOM conference in Zagreb — the first of many study trips.
2011
Margaret Valentin joins the studio.
Request a quote
Send a photograph. We'll tell you what it needs.
Quotes are free and carry no obligation. If you'd rather talk it through, call — you'll get one of us, not a queue.
- Telephone
- 0425 801 966
- Studio — by appointment only
- 66 Kinkora Road
Hawthorn, Victoria 3122