Living with a painting.

When it arrives

Let a crated work acclimatise for twenty-four hours before unpacking, and unpack it in the room it will live in. A painting that has travelled cold and is opened into a warm room can bloom on the surface — harmless, but alarming.

Light

Never hang a work in direct sunlight. The pigments are rated beyond a century of lightfastness, but direct sun will warm and cycle the surface, and that is what does the damage. Indirect daylight or a warm gallery lamp at an angle is ideal — which is also how the work was photographed.

Humidity and heat

Aim for a stable 40–60% relative humidity. Avoid above a radiator, above a fireplace, or on an exterior wall that gets cold. Stability matters far more than any particular number.

Hanging

Gallery convention places the centre of a work at about 152 cm from the floor. For anything over 10 kg use two fixings into something solid, not plasterboard alone. The studio can advise on a specific wall.

Cleaning

Dust with a clean, dry, soft brush — never a cloth, never water, never any cleaning product. If the varnish ever needs attention, that is a conservator's job, and the studio can recommend one.

Prints

Frame behind UV-filtering glazing with a cotton mat so the sheet never touches the glass. Handle the sheet by its edges, and only with clean dry hands.