Some Studies on Discolouration Effect of Electric Light Sources on Oil Painting and Water Colour Painting in Museum

Preservation of paintings in museum or art galleries, especially of organic materials like paper and textiles, is a great concern. It is crucial to have proper illumination to see an object. Due to urbanization, in most of the place’s daylight is not sufficient. Due to this, usage of electric lighting, with advanced technology, is highly important. The majority of electric lighting release corrosive ultra violet rays (UV). It can be observed that UV ray is also present as a neighbour of visible light. The discoloration effects of UV content, are due to its high energy concentration, leads to day-by-day discolouration of painting. Before using the electric light sources, it is important to check their UV content. For this, a comprehensive analysis and experiment have been carried out. This paper aims to investigate the UV content of various electric light sources and how it affects paintings like water colour and oil paintings. The primary hues red, green, blue, as well as gold and silver, have all been the subject of experiments. To illustrate the nature of the discolouration power of various types of lamps, results have been furnished in the form of tables as well as graphs. In this regard, appropriate light sources can be employed to prevent paintings from discoloration.