Oil painting on paper: Issues of paper damage research, conservation and restoration

The study aims to assess the condition of the paper support of oil paintings under the influence of natural aging factors in order to determine methods of conservation and restoration of oil paintings on paper. The article presents examples of the impact of oil paint binder on the paper support of art objects from the collections of St. Petersburg museums. The study shows possible variations of damage to the paintings’ support. Factors influencing the degree of oil binder absorption into the paper support are presented based on published research on this topic. The scientific novelty of the study lies in an attempt to systematize the influence of various factors on destructive changes in the paper support of oil paintings to identify the possibilities of conservation and restoration of these objects. Comprehensive research on oil painting on paper as a holistic object of restoration and conservation is absent in Russian and modern historiography, although separate methods of restoring graphic works and oil paintings exist. Based on a wide range of sources, the impact of oil paint binder on the paper support has been comprehensively examined. The study analyzed the experience of restoration presented in sources, systematized the obtained data, and identified the main factors of destruction. Particular attention was paid to the mutual influence of oil-absorbing properties of paint pigments depending on the method of preparing the support for painting. As a result of the work, the patterns of influence of oil paint binder on the paper support of paintings were identified based on published sources and tests on model samples.