To repair the tears in the canvas, Anne Rigaud prepares it before doing the pictorial reintegration. A. C.
The painting of the city's saint undergoes a complete repair under the talented hands of the professional at the bedside of works of art.
The whole art of restoration lies in this ability to breathe new life into a work that already exists. “We take care of it, we restore its value. It is not creation”, even confirms Anne Rigaud.
At 63, the art conservator and restorer has already worked for three decades. In front of her today, in her Gard studio in Logrian-Florian, stands Le Bienheureux Gérard de Lunel.
A work by Fraissines
The painting, signed by the Montpellier painter Fraissines, is of more than adequate dimensions. With a height of around 3 m and a width of 2.30 m, the work, which represents the saint of the commune of Lunel, requires the use of a stepladder to restore its full splendor.
Created in 1838, on canvas and in oil, it was entrusted last spring to Anne Rigaud by the municipality via the city's cultural service. A project that is part of the work on the Notre-Dame-du-Lac church.
It is mainly in religious art that the restorer – a graduate of, among others, the Beaux-Arts in Paris and the École nationale supérieure des arts visuels (Ensav) in La Cambre, Brussels – has revealed all her talent.
Two centuries of accumulated dirt and rubble
Her first restorations focused on 15th-century wall frescoes painted by Giacomo Jacquerio in the cloister of Abondance, in Haute-Savoie.
Over the years and her projects, including the Palais des Papes in Avignon and the Chartreuse de Villeneuve d’Avignon, Anne Rigaud gained experience and maturity. To the point of opening her own workshop in the small town of Gard.
Under the height of the beautiful wooden frame of the converted attic, Le Bienheureux Gérard de Lunel has already regained its colors, highlighted by the subdued light of the sun's rays piercing through the roof windows.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000In places, the paint was holding the canvas
After just a few weeks of work, the work is incomparable to the one that arrived in April 2024. “The frame was in good condition while the canvas had several holes and cracks, explains Anne Rigaud, while glancing here and there to always check the work done. On the other hand, there was a lot of rubble downstairs, between the canvas and the frame.”
Not to mention those pieces that literally fell into powder between the mass of dust and humidity that had agglomerated there. “In some places, it was even the paint that held the canvas and not the other way around!”, notes the restorer, who had to do not just one cleaning, as usual, but two.
On the classical-style work, she applied sheets of Bolloré paper over the entire surface, stuck with rice starch. “This brings up a lot of dirt by capillarity”, continues Anne Rigaud.
Read also: Passionate volunteers at the bedside of the saint of Lunel
A document for each stage of the restoration
Two hundred years of accumulations, the painting receiving its first restoration there. Only a coat of varnish was given several decades ago.“But in an unorthodox way. With thick drips and only up to the edge of the frame”, the “savior” of Saint Gerard is not surprised. A trace from another time.
“Today, this could not happen, informs the woman at the bedside of heritage in general, Lunelois in these times. On the one hand, professionals in the trade are committed to using reversible products. On the other hand, ethics in art restoration implies that everything we do must be known and understood, documented and recorded.”
As proof, the 20-page document that Anne Rigaud has added to each stage of the restoration of the Blessed Gérard de Lunel.
Inauguration on June 1st with the Archbishop of Montpellier
A work on which the restorer enjoys working. “It's typically the kind of painting that reveals itself as the work progresses, she enjoys saying, her eyes immersed in Fraissines' creation. We discover how the painter created his work. We really relive the creative act.”
Details, pencil lines, an entire story that the people of Lunel will be able to admire again when the painting returns to the Saint-Gérard chapel in Notre-Dame-du-Lac, which will be officially inaugurated by the Archbishop of Montpellier on Sunday, June 1.