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Two 19th-century young women, one reading, wearing contemporary masks: a canvas restored, then taken up by Alixe Fu
Masterclass and guided tour · with the director of LabMusée

To restore is to revive

How an 18th-century canvas is restored, then how Alixe Fu turns it into a work of today. A masterclass and guided tour with the director of LabMusée, fifteen places.

When
Sunday, 29 November 2026 · 15:00
Where
LabMusée — Alixe Fu's studio, then the Anti-Rétro collection
Access
Booking required — Sunday 29 November, 3 pm → 4.45 pm · €15, admission included · members €10 · fifteen places

Alixe Fu buys 18th- and 19th-century canvases at auction, sometimes at flea markets: torn, flaking, often anonymous. He restores them, then paints on them: a mask, a balloon, a landscape in a tear. The old portrait remains, but it looks at our time.

The masterclass tells both gestures. First the restorer's, in Alixe Fu's studio, tools in hand. Then the artist's, before the Mixed Portraits. Fifteen people at most, so everyone can look closely.

The same canvas before restoration: torn, flaking, held at arm's length

From this… to this

The canvases arrive torn, grimy, sometimes without a frame. Here are three of them: drag the slider to go from the canvas Alixe Fu found to the one that hangs today. During the masterclass, we retrace the path step by step.

The same canvas after: vivid colours, a young man in a white mask, balloons in the sky
Youth with balloons before: a pale, faded landscape, unframed canvas
BeforeAfter
Youth with balloonsFrench school, 19th century. A faded canvas, almost erased. Restored, it regains its landscape; Alixe Fu adds a white mask and balloons in the sky.
Madame Odéon after: the same face against contemporary faces in green and red
Madame Odéon before: portrait of a woman in a lace bonnet, blackened background
BeforeAfter
Madame OdéonFrench school, 19th century. A darkened bourgeois portrait. The face remains the original painter's; the background opens onto other faces, from today.
Girl of the Seine after: the same young woman, a red dot on her forehead, a background of coloured shapes
Girl of the Seine before: a young woman in a green dress and lace collar, darkened canvas
BeforeAfter
Girl of the SeineFrench school, 19th century. A portrait in a chipped black frame. Alixe Fu keeps the young woman, her lace, her flowered bonnet; he sets a red dot on her forehead and opens the background into colour.
And these?

Eight other canvases in the collection made the same journey. We only show you how they began: the rest is revealed in front of the works.

The Visit to the Cross of Jesus, original state: a dark crucifixion scene, yellowed varnish, black frameAfter: on site
Portrait of a man in 1850, original state: canvas torn at lower rightAfter: on site
Girl with a red ribbon, original state, 1846After: on site

The programme

  1. I
    In the studio · 15 minutes

    Anatomy of a painting

    A painting is a layer cake: stretcher, linen canvas, glue, ground, paint, varnish. We turn a canvas round to see its back, and the stretcher key passes from hand to hand: two taps of the hammer and the canvas tightens.

  2. II
    In the studio · 10 minutes

    Why a canvas dies

    Damp, light, acidity, rusting nails. Over two centuries the canvas swells and shrinks hundreds of times; the paint cannot follow, it cracks and flakes away. We touch an old canvas: it crackles like paper.

    Close-up: a web of cracks in the sky of “Haleurs”, before restoration
  3. III
    In the studio · 5 minutes

    Nails tell the age

    Irregular head and square shank: a forged nail, an old painting. A perfect round head: a machine nail, a recent one. Under a magnifier, the back of a canvas often says more than its face.

  4. IV
    In the studio · 20 minutes

    Relining, mending a hole

    The demonstration: protective paper on the face, glue, a new canvas on the back, press, re-stretching. Then the hole: a patch, filler, sanding, a ground colour, the retouching.

    Close-up: an arc-shaped tear in the canvas of “Portrait of a man in 1850”, before restoration
  5. V
    In the studio · 5 minutes

    Spot the mistakes

    A flea-market painting, badly repaired. Your turn to spot what should never have been done.

  6. VI
    In the galleries · 35 minutes

    Restore, then transform

    We know how to save a canvas: what if we saved it to make it say something else? Before the Mixed Portraits, original photos in hand, we look for what was restored and what Alixe Fu added.

  7. VII
    15 minutes

    Restore or transform?

    The question we ask together to close, before “Youth with balloons”. And your own questions, about restoration or a canvas you have at home.

Minimum of four participants. Below that, those booked are told on the Thursday before and refunded.

Practical information

Length
An hour and three quarters, from 3 pm to 4.45 pm.
Places
Fifteen per session: Saturday 14 November and Sunday 29 November.
Price
€15 per person, museum admission included. €10 for members, whatever their membership.
Getting here
23 rue du Pois, 95430 Auvers-sur-Oise. 35 to 55 minutes from Paris Gare du Nord, free car park 80 m away.

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