A New Lease on Life for “The Thau Lagoon and Mount Saint-Clair”
The painting “The Thau Lagoon and Mount Saint-Clair,” on display at the Coastal Environment Marine Station in Sète, has undergone restoration that has literally restored this canvas by Montpellier-based painter Max Leenhardt to its original dimensions. Marie Connan, a curator and restorer of paintings who was part of the team of professionals that carried out this project, details the steps involved in this delicate work.
When you walk through the door of the large room on the top floor of the Coastal Environment Marine Station in Sète, the floor-to-ceiling window directly across from you offers a magnificent view of the Thau Lagoon. But if you turn your head to the left, another view of the lagoon unfolds before you, one that is just as majestic. A small fishing boat, a child with his feet in the water, Mont Saint-Clair in the background bathed in soft light… You are looking at a work by the Montpellier painter Max Leenhardt, which, at 4.20 meters long and 1.65 meters high, spans the entire length of the room’s wall, offering a dual view of “The Thau Lagoon and Mont Saint-Clair.” This is also the title of the painting, created in 1900 at the request of Armand Sabathier, the founder of the marine station and a relative of the painter, who, according to research by Isabelle Laborie—who dedicated her art history thesis to Max Leenhardt—is said to have donated this canvas to the station free of charge.
The painting has adorned the building’s walls for over 120 years, under conservation conditions that have not always been optimal and have taken their toll on the work, which has faded over time. An unidentified incident even caused a hole in the painting, which has lost some of its luster. “In 2024, the restoration of the work was scheduled in consultation with the station’s team, thanks to funding from the UM amounting to 23,000 euros,” explains Caroline Ducourau, director of the Department of Scientific Culture and Historical Heritage. Marie Connan, curator and restorer of paintings, will lead this delicate mission alongside her colleagues Danièle Amoroso, Alexandra Deneux, Séverine Padiolleau, and Thierry Martel (for the removal and reinstallation).
A Surprise Frieze
In July 2024, the restoration team took the painting down to assess the scope of the work. And there, to their surprise, they discovered a frieze of marine animals intertwined with seaweed hidden all around the canvas, tucked behind a wooden stretcher. “To make it easier to fold the canvas onto the stretcher, the four corners had simply been cut off, ” recalls Marie Connan. She and her team then decided to restore the work to its original format by filling in the missing sections of canvas.
But to do so, and to carry out the entire conservation and restoration process, they had to transport the painting to the Amoroso Waldeis workshop in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. “Given its size, it quickly became clear that moving it as-is would be too complicated, so we removed the canvas from its wooden stretcher after applying a temporary surface protection and rolling it up.” And that’s where the work begins.
"Lasagna" of paint
“It’s important to note that Max Leenhardt uses a particular technique: the paint is applied in thick, overlapping layers, turning the painting into a veritable ‘lasagna’ of paint, which increases the risk of losing material, as we’ve observed, for example, on the child’s head,” explains the restorer. And when viewed up close, the work reveals a network of cracks, “a natural aging process that cannot be prevented, just as we cannot prevent wrinkles from appearing on the skin over time, ” explains Marie Connan.
Since they were unable to correct the wrinkles in the painting, the restorers set about “stretching and relaxing” the canvas to flatten the work and minimize the risk of further loss of material, before filling in the areas where the paint had disappeared. “We also cleaned the surface to remove dust, drips, and streaks and restore some of the colors’ original luster.” This task was made delicate by the nature of the painting, which is oil-based and unvarnished. “We have to achieve the same level of gloss as the original canvas during the retouching phase, ” explains Marie Connan. And while the original gloss has been preserved, the colors and highlights have been revitalized by this restoration. A difference that immediately catches the eye of regulars at the marine station who have seen this work before and after its restoration.
Semi-illusionistic restoration
Another striking difference is the famous frieze that frames the canvas, which the conservators and restorers have reconstructed. Since they did not know what had been depicted in these blind spots, the experts had to exercise a degree of artistic interpretation to reconstruct the work as it likely appeared. “We proposed what is known as a semi-illusionistic restoration: up close, you can see the difference between the added parts and the original, but from a distance, you can’t tell.”
A large-scale, technically complex restoration project that will allow the painting to return to the walls of the marine station a year later, in July 2025, offering visitors that famous dual view of the Thau Lagoon. An event that may foreshadow others, as Caroline Ducourau hopes: “There is a significant cultural heritage at the marine station, including certain paintings that also deserve to be restored.”
