Read more: 鈥�Graduate Special 2013鈥�
From to silent movie celluloids, Joanna Russell鈥檚 work spans the entire history of art. But rather than assessing these pieces on their aesthetic merits, Joanna looks at their chemistry.
As a heritage chemist at the in London, it is Joanna鈥檚 job to analyse the materials and methods used to make some of the world鈥檚 most prized works of art.
Advertisement
Joanna uses a combination of chemical analyses to identify the types of paint and pigment that have been used, which can in turn help her date the paintings and understand how they might degrade. Looking at objects under different wavelengths of light, meanwhile, can reveal hidden layers.
The British Museum hired Joanna to study drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, and gave her a priceless work by celebrated Italian painter Titian in her first week on the job.
Joanna鈥檚 work is funded by , a body that supports, among other things, the preservation of art in museums. Her two-year postdoctoral fellowship includes a training scheme, and Joanna often uses what she learns to advise museum curators on how to display objects in a way that helps preserve them.
Joanna got her first taste for art conservation while studying for a degree in chemistry at Imperial College London. As part of the course, she attended lectures on material degradation at the nearby . 鈥淚t was slightly unusual,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here were only two of us who did that option.鈥� After graduating, Joanna picked up practical conservation skills, such as how to clean and retouch oil paintings, during a master鈥檚 in .
One of the most exciting aspects of heritage chemistry is figuring out the details of an artist鈥檚 signature style, Joanna says. For her PhD, she focused on 20th-century artist Francis Bacon. By analysing pigments, microscopic paint samples and the way Bacon layered paint on his canvasses, she was able to put together a profile of how the artist worked. This now helps the Estate of Francis Bacon identify genuine paintings. 鈥淭here are lots of portraits where he had cut out the face,鈥� Joanna says. 鈥淵ou get people retrieving things out of dustbins, and things come up at auction that are just tiny fragments of a Francis Bacon.鈥�