Claude Huot began his apprenticeship in October 1951, studying
theory in the cabinetmaking department at the furniture industry’s Ecole
d’Apprentissage and, after three years, acquiring a cer tificat d’aptitude pr ofes-
sionelle.His teachers were his father and René Perche. At the same time,
Claude Huot took courses in commerce and accounting. In 1964, two years
after assuming the management of the studio, Claude Huot hired Robert
Legris, and the studio carried out its first interventions on the wooden sup-
ports of paintings belonging to private owners, particularly those con-
signed by the Chauffrey-Muller studio, whose director was E. Rostain.
Huot’s first work on paintings that belonged to the state were
similar to the types ofrestorations that he had carried out previously for
private clients.^60 (For examples illustrating the techniques discussed below,
see Figures 3–17.) In 1965 the first mobile crossbars with hollowed-out sur-
faces on the side of the panel appeared; they were held by cleats adhered
with a vinyl adhesive in the direction of the grain.^61 Also in 1965, the Huot
studio performed its first thinnings of pictures either originally painted on
poor-quality plywood (a picture painted by Picasso on wartime material)
or on cross-grain boards.
In 1967, on Germain Bazin’s advice, Claude Huot attended a
monthlong course at the Istituto Centrale del Restauro. Upon his return, he
immediatelyintroduced at the Louvre the technique of consolidation with
Paraloid, an acrylic resin tested and chosen for use by the Istituto Centrale,
along with hollow, cylindrical mobile crossbars of the Carità type in wood
cleats sheathed with brass.^62 In addition, Huot introduced the use of a sys-
tem in which cross-grain elements of aframe could be reattached to the
panel by means of screws placed in oval-shaped holes in the panel; this sys-
tem allows the free play of the wood of the panel in the frame.274 Bergeon, Emile-Mâle, Huot, and Baÿ
Figure 3
Rondinelli, Le Miracle de la lampe.Side view.
Musée du Petit-Palais (MI 590), Avignon.
Curve acquired by a panel cut tangentially to
the rings of the tree and painted on a single
side. The painting will not be straightened.
Figure 4
Il Sollazzino,La Vier ge d’humilité. R everse.
Musée du Petit-Palais (MI 558), Avignon.
Restoration of a split: incision and V-shaped
inlay of the same type of aged wood is seen
in section. The inlay allows the rejoining and
the evening of the edges. This method was
developed at the Istituto Centrale del
Restauro, Rome.