We conservators are often like little detectives, deciphering all the clues. Sometimes we find fingerprints; sometimes we find hair. There are so many traces to be found on these objects. I always say: you can always spot a conservator by their magnifying glasses and the torch in their hand, as they stand in the museum galleries gesticulating in front of the paintings. My name is Natalie Prader, I’m a conservator and I see all sorts of damage. Often I can’t even see what’s painted on the work anymore; instead, I simply notice the tiniest imperfections – a crackle, a flake of paint that’s starting to come away, a stain, or yellowing. In this painting, I discovered dents in the top right and bottom left corners, near the edges. I thought these dents had formed due to poor stretching, but as it turned out, they were caused by painting on the reverse side. It’s not just one painting hanging here; there are actually two. So we realised that it isn’t necessarily damage or down to poor stretching, but simply the tension caused by the canvas being painted on the back. That’s why we couldn’t completely flatten the dents – though, in the end, we didn’t want to anyway, as they reveal old traces of the artist’s work and are therefore well worth preserving.