The entrepreneur and patron Michel Lemay created the Claire and Michel Lemay Fund within the King Baudouin Foundation, with the aim of contributing to the development of Walloon Picardy in the economic, social, heritage and cultural and/or artistic sectors.

To mark the launch of the fund, the Management Committee decided to take charge of the restoration of Edouard Manet’s painting Argenteuil that hangs in the Tournai Musée des Beaux-Arts. Michel Lemay was extremely keen on this project and let it be understood that he wanted to support it.

Listed as exceptional heritage by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, the work will be restored under the auspices of the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique in Brussels.

The painting is in need of renovation because it has several weaknesses. Having undergone a modification of its format, the canvas is no longer correctly fixed to its frame. It still retains a certain flexibility but it must be strengthened. Slight swellings and small gaps in the paint layer testify to a loss of adherence that must absolutely be arrested. Moreover, the yellowed varnish prevents the painting from being appreciated with all of the nuances that Manet would have wished.

The restoration should be finished towards the end of 2013.