Follow the Restoration of the Rousseau Album

KBR, in collaboration with the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (RMFAB), is leading this essential restoration. Your financial support will enable a specialist conservator to carry out this complex project, including:

• Paper surface treatment: cleaning and dusting
• Treating the interleaved paper:
  • Detaching the silk paper to treat it
  • Capillary washing to reduce the risk of ink degradation and paper embrittlement. This treatment helps reduce stains and smooth the silk paper. The paper is then dried between nonwovens and tissue paper under weight.
  • Sealing of tears: reinforcement with Japanese paper and a specific glue.
  • Mounting the protective page: wrapping in Japanese paper with a margin and reattaching in the book. The Japanese paper supports the fine silk paper, isolates it from the drawing and preserves both the transparent aspect and the aesthetics of the whole.
• Consolidation of the book binding and re-attachment of the signatures.
• Full documentation of treatments carried out

For those who participated in this campaign, and for all art lovers, we invite you to follow the Rousseau Album restoration process closely. Sign up for our newsletter to receive exclusive updates on the progress of the restoration work. You’ll also find information on upcoming events, exhibitions, and other exciting projects at KBR.

Essential restoration work

This restoration project is crucial to preserving the album of drawings and illustrated letters dating from 1883, compiled by Mariette Rousseau, a close friend of James Ensor. The album, currently on display at the exhibition “James Ensor. Inspired by Brussels” until June 2, 2024, is undergoing rapid deterioration due to the acidic paper, silk leaves and partially detached binding. Prior to this exhibition, the album was rarely shown because of its poor condition. Thanks to the restoration, we will be able to lend this precious album again to other institutions for inclusion in other exhibitions, so that it can be seen by a wider public.

Continue to Support KBR

Although we’ve reached our goal, our mission to preserve our cultural heritage doesn’t end here. If you’d like to continue supporting KBR and our initiatives, you can make an online donation on our website. Every contribution, large or small, helps us to make accessible to everyone the world-renowned heritage we conserve, manage and study.

Thanks again!

Thank you again for your generosity and commitment to preserving our cultural heritage. We look forward to sharing with you the progress of this exciting project.

Subscribe to our newsletter and continue to support us in preserving and celebrating art and history.