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| David Teniers, detail: Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's Galleries in Brussels, c. 1653 |
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Collectors hundreds of years ago used to protect their most precious paintings with curtains, they were attached to the frames.
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The cumulative effects of sunlight can wash out pigments in artwork.The main culprit responsible for light damage is ultraviolet (UV) light.
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Picture glass filters out about half of the ultraviolet light rays bouncing around a room, and in 2002, I started to frame my works using specific UV protectant glass. But even with this precaution, any intense light, natural, incandescent, halogen, or fluorescent can damage a work of art.
The very best defense against light damage for a work of art is to place it in the dark. Of course this defeats the purpose of owning a piece of art, but this is one of the reasons that people who own art collections often rotate works in and out of storage.
We can thank persnickety collectors like Leopold for preserving some of the worlds greatest masterpieces. But as sensible as curtains for pictures was, it's not very common today, so a collector nowadays has to balance the risk to an artwork with her desire to view it.
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For my clients I advise:
•Never let rays of sunlight directly hit the surface of an artwork.
•The darkest (least lit) rooms, and the darkest walls in a room are the best ones for hanging pictures.
•The best protections against excessive light and UV radiation are adequate window coverings, e.g. curtains, blinds, shades.
•Turn off picture specific lights when no one is viewing the picture.
I still own one of my oldest woven color plate pieces, Mary Birds. It hasn't suffered any visible UV damage. I've always kept it on a wall away from windows, and only used direct picture spotlights to display the picture to guests.
One owner of a picture I made though chose to see an artwork everyday in a very bright sunny room, and the result is on this page.
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