Since being loomed on the tension frame, work has been progressing to reverse the misfortune that has befallen Vive l'Empereur. Access to the centre of the image has been made possible by the construction of a large, 6 meter long scaffolding rig over the painting, which has been placed face up on a large table. The scaffolding spans the length of the tension frame, and wheels allow it to be rolled up and down the length of Vive according to necessity. By lying on mats on the scaffolding, with head and shoulders reaching over the edge, it is possible to work directly above any area of the painting.

Convincing the canvas to become flat again was the main priority of the working frame. A two-stage approach was used for this end. Gentle tensioning over a long period of time was able to relax the major deformations throughout the canvas caused by the water damage and years of being rolled up in storage. This preferential tensioning applied from the edges managed to coax most of the major bulges in the canvas back to an even plane.

The remaining deformations were those trapped in the area that had been coated in wax resin, making it stiff and unresponsive to lateral tensioning, this was treated by using the old wax resin residue to our advantage. By systematically working through small portions of the impregnated area it was possible to remove stubborn undulations with the application of heat and local pressure. A hair drier was used to activate the wax resin thereby softening the canvas. Weights were then applied over a piece of plastic film to 'set' the canvas back to its original flat state. As soon as the wax had been given time to cool the weights were removed and a new section was worked on.

Although the wax resin emergency treatment had proven to be a crucial in order to prevent loss of a much greater amount of paint, 50 years later the mixture covering the surface had become brittle and discoloured, disfiguring the appearance of the painted image underneath. It would also hamper our future efforts to fill in the lost areas of paint and retouch in order to re-establish its original appearance. Work was therefore necessary to clear this excess material once the deformations had been reduced. This was achieved by using a combination of methods. Where the wax resin was very thick a scalpel could be used to gently chip away at the upper crust, the rest could then be removed with the application of solvent applied with cotton swabs without any damage to the paint surface.