Composition
Tapestry woven in the Fino workshop, Portalegre.
With label of the Suzy Langlois gallery, n°1/6.
Circa 1980.
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Luc Estang
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Tabard workshop. With label. Circa 1947. -
Jour d'été (summer day)
Edmond Dubrunfaut can be considered as the great 20th century renovator of the Belgian tapestry tradition. He founded a weavers’ workshop in Tournai as early as 1942, then, in 1947, created the Centre de Rénovation de la Tapisserie de Tournai. He produced for various Belgian workshops (Chaudoir, de Wit,...) numerous cartoons destined notably to adorn Belgian embassies throughout the world. Moreover, Dubrunfaut was a teacher of monumental art forms at the Academie des Beaux-Arts de Mons from 1947 to 1978 and then, in 1979, contributed to the creation of the Fondation de la tapisserie, des arts du tissu et des arts muraux de Tournai, a veritable heritage centre for the art of the tapestry in Wallonie. His style, characterised by figuration, strong colour contrasts, draws direct inspiration from nature and animal life (as with Perrot, for example, this artist has a net predilection for birdlife). In this respect the cartoon, with its elongated format in keeping with the bird’s height, represented here in a very realistic fashion, is characteristic of the afore-mentioned predilection. Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue Dubrunfaut et la renaissance de la tapisserie, tableaux, dessins, peintures, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Mons, 1982-1983.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Four workshop, edited by Jean Laurent. With label, n°EA. 1989. -
Hommage à Vivaldi (a tribute to Vivaldi)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With signed label. 1963. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the foremost figures in the renaissance of the art of tapestry. His earliest contributions to the field date back to 1943 when he designed cartoons for the passenger ship “la Marseillaise”. A close associate of Lurçat, whose theories he would adopt (limited palette, numbered cartoons…), he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie), and soon after, a teacher at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The state gave him several commissions most of them at the Aubusson workshop, and some at the Gobelins : the most spectacular of these being for the University of Caen, the Theatre in Le Mans, the passenger ship France or the Prefecture of the Creuse département … In as much as Picart le Doux’s aesthetic is close to that of Lurçat, so also is his inspiration and his subject matter, although in a register which is more decorative than symbolic, where he brings together heavenly bodies (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds…), man, literary quotation … The theme of the seasons is a classic in the history of tapestry which was enthusiastically ressuscitated by the 20th century cartoon artists, of whom Lurçat was foremost (cf his Seasons wall hanging commissioned by the state in 1939). Here, Seasons, Zodiac, Music (in the title only) coexist: the work is a vast synthesis of the artist's various sources of inspiration. The colour graduation and specific attributes (the iconography is traditional) allow us to follow the annual cycle. The seasons will also be woven together in pairs, horizontally, in a smaller format (3 m²), and without reference to Vivaldi. Bibliography : Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966, n°19 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972, n°139 Exhibition Catalogue, Jean Picart le Doux, tapisseries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976, ill. Exhibition Catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Boulogne sur Mer, Bibliothèque municipale, 1978 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Paris,Musée de la Poste, 1980, ill. Exhibition Catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Abbaye Saint Jean d’Orbestier, 1992, ill. -
Jardin champêtre (country garden)
A painter of weaving cartoons, a master-weaver, director of the Hamot manufacture at Aubusson where he wove most notably Sheila Hicks : the multiple talents of Hecquet are undeniable. That of painter-cartonnier which began at the end of the 1960’s, remains however one of the less well-known, as is the case for numerous other artists of the same generation.Aubusson tapestry woven in the Hamot workshop. With signed label, n°3/6. 1980. -
Voleur de soleil (Sun thief)
Originally a sculptor exploiting very diverse materials (steel, concrete, clay…), Borderie came to tapestry with immense enthusiasm in the 1950’s with the weaving of his first cartoon in 1957. Receiving encouragement from Denise Majorel, he was awarded the Grand Prix National de la Tapisserie in 1962. In 1974 he was appointed as director at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs at Aubusson but he resigned from this post shortly thereafter. He designed over 500 painted cartoons, abstracts using simple shapes, shading in a limited palette of colours and weaving with gros points. A dynamic abstraction with a limited colour scheme running from orange to brown, same preoccupations with light (and shadow) as in ‘les armes de la lumière’ (and as in Matégot's work).: a classic cartoon from André Borderie. Here we find the Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue André Borderie « pour l’homme simplement », Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1998 Exhibition Catalogue André Borderie et la tapisserie d’Aubusson, Aubusson, Manufacture Saint-Jean, 2018Aubusson tapestry woven in the Legoueix workshop. With signed label, n°5/6. Circa 1970. -
Ciel de Sienne (Sky in Sienna)
Fumeron designed his first cartoons (he would ultimately make over 500) in the 1940’s, in collaboration with the Pinton workshop, he was then commissioned on numerous occasions by the state before participating in the decoration of the ocean liner “France”. His work was figurative to begin with and influenced by Lurçat, then turned towards abstraction, before coming back to a style characterised by colourful figurative and realistic depictions from the 1980’s onwards. The title and the subject of this cartoon combine in a subtle play on words : the opposition of « terre » the earth (the colour sienna in French is “terre de Sienne” ) and “ciel” the sky allows the artist to depict, on a shaded ocre (sienna) background his birds and sun-circle, in the deorative vein so redolent of this particular artist.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. N°4/6. Circa 1960. -
Cortège d'Orphée (Orpheus's procession)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. 1961. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the foremost figures in the renaissance of the art of tapestry. His earliest contributions to the field date back to 1943 when he designed cartoons for the passenger ship “la Marseillaise”. A close associate of Lurçat, whose theories he would adopt (limited palette, numbered cartoons…), he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie), and soon after, a teacher at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The state gave him several commissions most of them at the Aubusson workshop, and some at the Gobelins : the most spectacular of these being for the University of Caen, the Theatre in Le Mans, the passenger ship France or the Prefecture of the Creuse département … In as much as Picart le Doux’s aesthetic is close to that of Lurçat, so also is his inspiration and his subject matter, although in a register which is more decorative than symbolic, where he brings together heavenly bodies (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds…), man, literary quotation … « The bestiary or Orpheus’ procession » is a collection of Poems by Apollinaire which would be illustrated with lithographs by Picart le Doux in 1962 (after Raoul Dufy’s work for the original edition). At the same time he designed a tapestry cartoon, using the form of a checkerboard popular with Lurçat, where each square figures a crayfish, a goat or a lion,..., in different and varied aspects of the animal kingdom. Bibliography : Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966, n°13 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972, n°108 Exhibition Catalogue, Jean Picart le Doux, tapisseries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Boulogne sur Mer, Bibliothèque municipale, 1978 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Paris,Musée de la Poste, 1980 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Abbaye Saint Jean d’Orbestier, 1992 -
La lyre aux papillons (Lyre with butterflies)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With signed label. Circa 1963. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the foremost figures in the renaissance of the art of tapestry. His earliest contributions to the field date back to 1943 when he designed cartoons for the passenger ship “la Marseillaise”. A close associate of Lurçat, whose theories he would adopt (limited palette, numbered cartoons…), he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie), and soon after, a teacher at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The state gave him several commissions most of them at the Aubusson workshop, and some at the Gobelins : the most spectacular of these being for the University of Caen, the Theatre in Le Mans, the passenger ship France or the Prefecture of the Creuse département … In as much as Picart le Doux’s aesthetic is close to that of Lurçat, so also is his inspiration and his subject matter, although in a register which is more decorative than symbolic, where he brings together heavenly bodies (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds…), man, literary quotation … ‘Natural’ musical instruments (made from blossoming tree branches) are a recurring theme in Picart le Doux's work from 1953 onwards (see ‘La harpe des forêts’ [The Forest Harp]); ‘La harpe aux papillons’ [The Butterfly Harp], vertical with a red background, revisits this theme in 1963. Bibliography : Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972 Exhibition Catalogue, Jean Picart le Doux, tapisseries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 -
Clos d'octobre (october enclosure)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Andraud workshop. With label, n°EA2. 1978.A student of Léon Detroy, Gaston Thiéry is one of the last representatives of the Crozant school of painting. Estalished in the Creuse region of France, he started working on tapestries in 1965 with the Andraud workshop for whom he designed cartoons inspired by the local flora, in a decorative style which can be situated somewhere between that of Dom Robert and Maingonnat, a world away from his landscape paintings which were strongly influenced by the impressionists. -
Composition orange
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Goubely workshop. Circa 1940. -
Le trident de Neptune (Neptune's trident)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. 1946. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the foremost figures in the renaissance of the art of tapestry. His earliest contributions to the field date back to 1943 when he designed cartoons for the passenger ship “la Marseillaise”. A close associate of Lurçat, whose theories he would adopt (limited palette, numbered cartoons…), he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie), and soon after, a teacher at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The state gave him several commissions most of them at the Aubusson workshop, and some at the Gobelins : the most spectacular of these being for the University of Caen, the Theatre in Le Mans, the passenger ship France or the Prefecture of the Creuse département … In as much as Picart le Doux’s aesthetic is close to that of Lurçat, so also is his inspiration and his subject matter, although in a register which is more decorative than symbolic, where he brings together heavenly bodies (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds…), man, literary quotation … Our cartoon, one of the artist's first, reflects his allegorical and mythological references (see ‘Le trésor d'Amphitrite’ from 1949) in his treatment of the sea. A close tapestry, ‘Les algues’, is more literal. Bibliography : Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972, n°6 Exhibition Catalogue, Jean Picart le Doux, tapisseries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Boulogne sur Mer, Bibliothèque municipale, 1978 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Paris,Musée de la Poste, 1980 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Abbaye Saint Jean d’Orbestier, 1992 -
Marchands (Traders)
Toffoli produced a large number of tapestries in collaboration with the Robert Four workshop from 1976 onwards, designing several hundred cartoons. In them we find post-cubist transparent effects which are characteristic of the artist, as indeed are the subjects treated. Thus Toffoli’s tapestries do not differ from his painting : travelling for inspiration, here he illustrates scenes observed during his travels in South America.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Four workshop. With signed label, n°EA2/2. Circa 1980. -
Les 6 mots du secret (the 6 words of secrecy)
In 1987, Texier received a commission for the Human Rights tapestries ensemble to mark the bicentenary of the Revolution. The choice was unexpected, as the artist, still young, had never before produced tapestry cartoons. This commission brought together the Aubusson workshops that were still in operation at the time, with the seven tapestries covering a total of more than 130 woven sq.m. with literal quotations (the tables of the declaration are reproduced identically to the engraving from the revolutionary period), oscillating objects, signs, texts, etc. Texier went on to provide cartoons for both the Manufactures Nationales (a series of three tapestries and a carpet) and Aubusson. Our cartoon incorporates the visual symbols, scattered texts, and traces characteristic of the artist's graphic and visual universe, which constitute, to quote him, “maps where [he] introduces guiding elements” in order to reveal the eponymous « secret » to us. Bibliography : La Suite des Droits de l’Homme, Niort, 1989Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With signed label, n°1/1. 2001. -
Oiseau de Midi (bright birds)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. With signed label, n°EA. 1969.Wogensky met Lurçat as early as 1939, but he only entered into collaboration with him after the war, designing his first cartoon in 1945 (already titled « les oiseaux » (the birds)) and soon after joined the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie). A teacher of mural art at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués in Paris, Wogensky designed 159 cartoons up until the 1980’s, most of them woven by Legoueix. “Wool is like us in that it is warm-blooded. It is comforting and reassuring. A wall of wool, is a living, more human wall” (quoted in Robert Guinot “la Tapisserie d’Aubusson et de Felletin”, Lucien Souny, 2009). This is the artist’s credo which would invigorate his creativity, finding expression in lyrical flights (literally, as ornithological themes, often highly stylised, were among his favourites. Some cartoons, particularly at the end of the 1970’s are resolutely abstract), in cartoons inspired by “Natural History” (a title he gave to one of his works in 1961), or in cosmic themes, using constellations or other natural elements. “I always took pleasure in working on a large scale” as he also confided in Robert Guinot. If this cartoon appears modest in comparison with other official commissions created by Wogensky (University of Strasbourg, the Senate conference hall...) its subject allows for an impression of spatial expansion, via the elan of the elliptic bird-like motifs, energized by the chromatic flattening effect of the bright red background. Bibliography : Cat. Expo. 25 ans de tapisserie française 1944, Paris, manufacture des Gobelins, 1969, n°33 Exhibition Catalogue La Tapisserie et l’Espace, Châteauroux, couvent des Cordeliers, 1978, n°21 Exhibition catalogue Robert Wogensky, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie, 1989, illustrated p.34 Exhibition catalogue Robert Wogensky, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1989, ill. p.20 -
Le périscope (the periscope)
“First of all I like wool, its warmth...In tapestry, I can use both colour and graphic design” wrote the artist in “Sculpture”, Paris, 1968. Better known as a sculptor, Gilioli would design his first cartoon in 1949, before winning in 1957 the Tapestry Prize at the Biennial in Sao Paulo ; in all he designed around a hundred tapestries, woven by the Pinton and Picaud workshops. From the end of the 1960’s onwards Gilioli’s cartoons are exclusively geometrical, use two or three colours and evolve in parallel with the forms employed in other media. Our tapestry reproduces, on a smaller scale, the mosaic designed a few years earlier by the artist for the building “Le Périscope,” a project by Novarina in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue Gilioli, Paris, Galerie la Demeure, 1971 Exhibition catalogue Des sculpteurs et la Tapisserie, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1995 Exhibition catalogue Gilioli Tapisseries, Paris, Fondation Dina Vierny, 1997Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshop. With signed label, n°1/6. 1971. -
Instruments de musique lunaire (instruments for moonlight music)
A painter and engraver, Lucien Coutaud also worked in the theatre with Dullin, Barrault and designed numerous sets and costumes. However it was his encounter with Marie Cuttoli in 1933 which would introduce him to tapestry : she mainly commissioned seat cover designs. Most of the tapestries that followed were woven in the Pinton workshop for the Compagnie des Arts Français, whose main aim was to integrate tapestry as an element of interior decoration. The last 3 tapestries designed by the artist in 1960 are a tribute to his notoriety because “Jardins exotiques” was chosen to decorate the 1st class saloon on the “France” transatlantic liner.Elements of his work as a set designer, influenced by surrealism, are discernible in Coutaud’s woven art : the world he illustrates is figurative yet stylised (shapes are angular and harsh) contained in a dream world often incorporating unusual borders. The cartoon « Instruments de musique lunaire » (Coutaud painted his own cartoons in watercolours without having recourse to numbered cartoons) dates from 1950 : it’s one of the few tapestries designed by this artist (notable also are « Harpe marine » Marine harp and « Violon printanier » Spring violin », as examples of his taste for musical still lives) where the human figure is absent. The centre of the scene (the stage) is occupied by the instruments, while two heads (blowing into musical instruments in the pit) take up the two bottom corners, the whole meanwhile being an austere scene, night time (hence the moonlight) a good representation of the dream-like universe inhabited by this artist’s creations. The municipal theatre in Göteborg possesses a copy of this tapestry. Bibliography : J. Cassou, M. Damain, R. Moutard-Uldry, la tapisserie française et les peintres cartonniers, Tel, 1957, ill. p.86 Exhibition Catalogue Lucien Coutaud, œuvre tissé, Aubusson, Musée Départemental de la Tapisserie, 1988-1989, ill. p.42-43 Exhibition Catalogue Le théâtre en tapisserie, Cavaillès, Lurçat, Matisse, Sorèze, Abbaye-école Musée dom Robert, 2017, ill. n°8Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. 1950. -
Le conscrit des 100 villages (the conscript of the 100 villages)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Tabard workshop. 1947. -
Laissez les vivre (let them live)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Tabard workshop. With signed label, n°6/8. Circa 1970.Henri Ilhe, who came to the design of tapestry cartoons late on in his career, still managed to produce from 1964 onwards a considerable number (more than 120, all woven by the Tabard workshop) in an urbane style, incorporating birds and butterflies sporting in and around the gnarled branches of trees and bushes. “Laissez les livre” is thus, characteristic of Ilhe’s bucolic inspiration. -
La crique (the cove)
As a young painter moving towards abstraction in the late 40s, Longobardi was commissioned to paint large-scale murals in France and abroad (the presidency of the Republic of Abidjan, the rectorate of the Poitiers Academy, etc.), as well as numerous tapestry cartoons, in particular for the Manufactures Nationales, with sometimes very modern subjects (‘l'autostrade’, ‘l'aéroport’, etc.). Longobardi, along with Singier and Springer, was one of the very first abstract artists to receive public commissions at the time. Although his work was abstract, his aesthetic evolved over time, from sharp forms to a more lyrical style full of movement, until the appeasement of the 1960s. The high point of his meteoric official career came when he was commissioned to create ‘la crique’ for the starboard private dining room of the liner ‘France’. After this, the artist became much rarer. Our tapestry bears witness to a marine inspiration that is not so frequent on the liner "France", and which, moreover, remained on the borderline between Abstraction (his usual mode of expression) and Figuration. It was sold under number 170 in the Loudmer sale of 10.7.1983, ‘Œuvres d'art du France’. Provenance : liner "France" Bibliography : Cat. Expo. Le Mobilier National et les Manufactures Nationales des Gobelins et de Beauvais sous la IVe République, Beauvais, Galerie de la Tapisserie, 1997 Armelle Bouchet-Mazas, le paquebot France, éditions Norma, 2006, ill.p.170 Cat. Expo. Le chic ! Arts décoratifs et mobilier de 1930 à 1960, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2022-23Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshop. 1959. -
Le dindon (the turkey)
Perrot began his career as a cartoon designer at the end of the war, making almost 500 cartoons including numerous commissions from the state, most of which were woven at Aubusson. His style which is particularly rich and decorative is eminently recognisable : a crowd of butterflies or birds, most often, stands out against a background of vegetation, reminiscent of the millefleurs tapestries (which would also inspire Dom Robert). This tapestry is a typical example of the artist’s portraits of birds ; the turkey appears, as often in his work, associated with other birds, against a background inspired by the flower-strewn mediaeval tapestries. Another example was woven for the Ministry of Reconstruction. Bibliography : Tapisseries, dessins, peintures, gravures de René Perrot, Dessein et Tolra, 1982 Tapisserie d’Aubusson, Association du développement du pays d’Aubusson, 1983, ill.p.40 Cat. Expo. René Perrot, mon pauvre cœur est un hibou, Aubusson, Cité de la Tapisserie, 2023Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With label. Circa 1960. -
Le sultan (the sultan)
Lurçat’s artistic production was immense : it is however his role as the renovator of the art of tapestry design which ensures his lasting renown. As early as 1917, he started producing works on canvas, then in the 20’s and 30’s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins workshop dates back to 1937, at the same time he discovered the tapestry of the Apocalypse which was essential in his decision to devote himself to tapestry design. He first tackled the technical aspects with François Tabard, then on his installation at Aubusson during the war, he established his technique : broad point, a simplified palette, outlined cartoons with colours indicated by pre-ordained numbers. A huge production then follows (over 1000 cartoons) amplified by his desire to include his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) and the collaboration with the art gallery La Demeure and Denise Majorel, and then by his role as a tireless advocate for the medium around the world. His tapestries reveal a pictorial world which is specifically decorative, with a very personal symbolic iconography : cosmogony (the sun, the planets, the zodiac, the four elements…) stylised vegetation, fauna (rams, cocks, butterflies, chimera …) standing out against a background without perspective (voluntarily different from painting) and, in his more ambitious work, designed as an invitation to share in a poetic (he sometimes weaves quotations into his tapestries) and philosophical (the grand themes are broached from the wartime period onwards) vision whose climax is the “Chant du Monde” (Song of the World) (Jean Lurçat Museum , ancien hôpital Saint Jean, Angers) which remained unfinished at his death. ‘Le Sultan’ is an inverted version of “Fanfares”, with changes to the detail of the rooster's plumage. Although the rooster is a leitmotif for Lurçat, it can take on different meanings: here, in glory, on a large scale (3.5 m²), it bears witness to the Victory of 1945 (note the tricolour allusions), it is a festive rooster, deployed in a profusion of coloured areas. Bibliography : Tapisseries de Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Exhibition Catalogue Lurçat, 10 ans après, Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Exhibition catalogue Les domaines de Jean Lurçat, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1986 Symposium Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie in Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie 1992 Exhibition Catalogue Dialogues avec Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992 Exhibition catalogue Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 Jean Lurçat, le chant du monde Angers 2007 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2016Aubusson tapestry woven in the Tabard workshop. With signed label. Circa 1945. -
Survol (flying over)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. With signed label, n°5/6. 1974. It was in 1953 that Jean Picart le Doux proposed to Chaye to become his assistant and encouraged him to design tapestry cartoons : he would produce numerous bucolic cartoons, but also views of Normandy (Mont Saint Michel, Honfleur, regattas,...) whence he came. These compositions “as the bird flies” are typical of the artist. Bibliography : Simon Chaye tapisseries contemporaines, Editions Librairie des musées, 2014, ill. p.83 -
Opaline
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With label, n°1/6. Circa 1980.Best known as an engraver, Davo reproduces in tapestry the result of his research in that medium, based on the oxydation of different metals placed on the copper plate, hence its iridescent-solarizing effects. -
Le violon printanier (the spring violin)
A painter and engraver, Lucien Coutaud also worked in the theatre with Dullin, Barrault and designed numerous sets and costumes. However it was his encounter with Marie Cuttoli in 1933 which would introduce him to tapestry : she mainly commissioned seat cover designs. Most of the tapestries that followed were woven in the Pinton workshop for the Compagnie des Arts Français, whose main aim was to integrate tapestry as an element of interior decoration. The last 3 tapestries designed by the artist in 1960 are a tribute to his notoriety because “Jardins exotiques” was chosen to decorate the 1st class saloon on the “France” transatlantic liner.Elements of his work as a set designer, influenced by surrealism, are discernible in Coutaud’s woven art : the world he illustrates is figurative yet stylised (shapes are angular and harsh) contained in a dream world often incorporating unusual borders. There's a close link between music and fantasy in Coutaud's world: he creates musical still lifes where instruments come to life (cf. “harpe marine”), underlined by eccentric borders. Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue Lucien Coutaud, œuvre tissé, Aubusson, Musée Départemental de la Tapisserie, 1988-1989, illustrated p 50Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With signed label, n°2/6. 1956. -
Les 2 compagnons (the 2 partners)
Lurçat’s artistic production was immense : it is however his role as the renovator of the art of tapestry design which ensures his lasting renown. As early as 1917, he started producing works on canvas, then in the 20’s and 30’s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins workshop dates back to 1937, at the same time he discovered the tapestry of the Apocalypse which was essential in his decision to devote himself to tapestry design. He first tackled the technical aspects with François Tabard, then on his installation at Aubusson during the war, he established his technique : broad point, a simplified palette, outlined cartoons with colours indicated by pre-ordained numbers. A huge production then follows (over 1000 cartoons) amplified by his desire to include his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) and the collaboration with the art gallery La Demeure and Denise Majorel, and then by his role as a tireless advocate for the medium around the world. His tapestries reveal a pictorial world which is specifically decorative, with a very personal symbolic iconography : cosmogony (the sun, the planets, the zodiac, the four elements…) stylised vegetation, fauna (rams, cocks, butterflies, chimera …) standing out against a background without perspective (voluntarily different from painting) and, in his more ambitious work, designed as an invitation to share in a poetic (he sometimes weaves quotations into his tapestries) and philosophical (the grand themes are broached from the wartime period onwards) vision whose climax is the “Chant du Monde” (Song of the World) (Jean Lurçat Museum , ancien hôpital Saint Jean, Angers) which remained unfinished at his death. Our cartoon is a reversal of the ‘Man’ cartoon (a copy of which is kept at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris), with a few changes. The point is the same: integrated with Nature, in the foliage, surrounded by animals (an owl snuggled up to his breast, the blue dog-companion...), Man is the pivot around which all Creation revolves. Bibliography : Tapisseries de Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Exhibition Catalogue Lurçat, 10 ans après, Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Exhibition catalogue Les domaines de Jean Lurçat, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1986 Symposium Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie in Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie 1992 Exhibition Catalogue Dialogues avec Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992 Exhibition catalogue Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 Jean Lurçat, le chant du monde Angers 2007 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2016Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. With label. Circa 1945. -
Linarès
Matégot, originally a decorator, then creator of artefacts and furniture (an activity he abandoned in 1959) met François Tabard in 1945 and gave him his first cartoons, first of all figurative then rapidly of abstract design in the 1950’s. He became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres Cartonniers de Tapisserie) in 1949, participated in many international exhibitions (Matégot, like Lurçat before him, was an untiring advocate of the art of tapestry) fulfilled numerous public commissions, sometimes of monumental proportions (“Rouen” 85m2 for the Préfecture of the Seine Maritime département, and also tapestries for Orly Airport, for the Maison de la Radio, for the IMF...) and designed no fewer than 629 cartoons up until the 1970’s. In 1990 the Matégot foundation for contemporary tapestry was inaugurated in Bethesda, U.S.A. Matégot is an artist, like Wogensky, Tourlière or Prassinos, who turns wool textiles resolutely towards the abstract: at first lyrical, geometric in the 70’s, exploiting various technical aspects of the loom : colour graduations, shading, irregularities... Our carton is part of a large body of tapestries with exotic overtones: ‘Acapulco’, ‘Mindanao’, ‘Santa Cruz’... but with an abstract treatment. At this time, his tapestries were resolutely compartmentalized (but not geometric) before the more lyrical phase of the 1960s. Bibliography : J. Cassou, M. Damain, R. Moutard-Uldry, la tapisserie française et les peintres cartonniers, Tel, 1957, ill. p.141 Waldemar Georges, Mathieu Matégot, Prisme des Arts special issue, 1957, ill. Exhibition catalogue, Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991, ill. p.33 Patrick Favardin, Mathieu Matégot, Editions Norma, 2014, ill. p.96 in the 1954 Salon des Artistes décorateursAubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. With label. 1954. -
Moulin (mill)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Glaudin-Brivet workshop. With label, n°3/6. 1974. Bibliography : Simon Chaye tapisseries contemporaines, Editions Librairie des musées, 2014, ill. p.40 -
Brochette (skewer)
Lurçat’s artistic production was immense : it is however his role as the renovator of the art of tapestry design which ensures his lasting renown. As early as 1917, he started producing works on canvas, then in the 20’s and 30’s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins workshop dates back to 1937, at the same time he discovered the tapestry of the Apocalypse which was essential in his decision to devote himself to tapestry design. He first tackled the technical aspects with François Tabard, then on his installation at Aubusson during the war, he established his technique : broad point, a simplified palette, outlined cartoons with colours indicated by pre-ordained numbers. A huge production then follows (over 1000 cartoons) amplified by his desire to include his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) and the collaboration with the art gallery La Demeure and Denise Majorel, and then by his role as a tireless advocate for the medium around the world. His tapestries reveal a pictorial world which is specifically decorative, with a very personal symbolic iconography : cosmogony (the sun, the planets, the zodiac, the four elements…) stylised vegetation, fauna (rams, cocks, butterflies, chimera …) standing out against a background without perspective (voluntarily different from painting) and, in his more ambitious work, designed as an invitation to share in a poetic (he sometimes weaves quotations into his tapestries) and philosophical (the grand themes are broached from the wartime period onwards) vision whose climax is the “Chant du Monde” (Song of the World) (Jean Lurçat Museum , ancien hôpital Saint Jean, Angers) which remained unfinished at his death. The skewers are discreet (in some cartoons, Lurçat does not hesitate to place fish on tridents), and the fish appear as if on a stall, an arrangement that echoes the partitioning of his famous wardrobes. Bibliography : Tapisseries de Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Exhibition Catalogue Lurçat, 10 ans après, Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Exhibition catalogue Les domaines de Jean Lurçat, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1986 Symposium Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie in Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie 1992 Exhibition Catalogue Dialogues avec Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992 Exhibition catalogue Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 Jean Lurçat, le chant du monde Angers 2007 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2016Aubusson tapestry woven in the Tabard workshop. With signed label. Circa 1955. -
D'or et d'ombre (of gold and shade)
Originally a sculptor exploiting very diverse materials (steel, concrete, clay…), Borderie came to tapestry with immense enthusiasm in the 1950’s with the weaving of his first cartoon in 1957. Receiving encouragement from Denise Majorel, he was awarded the Grand Prix National de la Tapisserie in 1962. In 1974 he was appointed as director at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs at Aubusson but he resigned from this post shortly thereafter. He designed over 500 painted cartoons, abstracts using simple shapes, shading in a limited palette of colours and weaving with gros points. Here we find the same preoccupations with light (and shadow) as in ‘les armes de la lumière’ (and as in Matégot's work). Borderie was also woven by workshops other than Legoueix in Aubusson, Rado, Daquin and, more confidentially, Chartron in Angers (who wove Jorj Morin in particular). Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue André Borderie « pour l’homme simplement », Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1998 Exhibition Catalogue André Borderie et la tapisserie d’Aubusson, Aubusson, Manufacture Saint-Jean, 2018Tapestry woven in the Cartron workshop. With signed label, n°1/1. Circa 1970. -
Composition orange
Aubusson tapestry woven by le mur du nomade workshop. N°1/6. Circa 1970.Fumeron designed his first cartoons (he would ultimately make over 500) in the 1940’s, in collaboration with the Pinton workshop, he was then commissioned on numerous occasions by the state before participating in the decoration of the ocean liner “France”. His work was figurative to begin with and influenced by Lurçat, then turned towards abstraction, before coming back to a style characterised by colourful figurative and realistic depictions from the 1980’s onwards. The setting sun, the orange chromatic range and the composition on the edge between figuration and abstraction are characteristic of the artist's cartoons from this period. -
Maternité (Motherhood)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Four workshop. With signed label, n°5/6. Circa 2000. The Manufacture Four has called on a number of living artists (including Toffoli and Lartigaud) to weave them, adding a new dimension to Raya-Sorkine's pictorial production, with its strong lyrical expressiveness and vibrant colours. Bibliography : R. Guinot, la tapisserie d’Aubusson et de Felletin, Lucien Souny, 2009, ill. p.161 -
Composition
As a young painter moving towards abstraction in the late 40s, Longobardi was commissioned to paint large-scale murals in France and abroad (the presidency of the Republic of Abidjan, the rectorate of the Poitiers Academy, etc.), as well as numerous tapestry cartoons, in particular for the Manufactures Nationales, with sometimes very modern subjects (‘l'autostrade’, ‘l'aéroport’, etc.). Longobardi, along with Singier and Springer, was one of the very first abstract artists to receive public commissions at the time. Although his work was abstract, his aesthetic evolved over time, from sharp forms to a more lyrical style full of movement, until the appeasement of the 1960s. The high point of his meteoric official career came when he was commissioned to create ‘la crique’ for the starboard private dining room of the liner ‘France’. After this, the artist became much rarer. Our carton is stylistically close to the artist's latest weavings for the Manufactures Nationales, notably ‘Plein feu’ from 1963-1964. Bibliography : Cat. Expo. Le Mobilier National et les Manufactures Nationales des Gobelins et de Beauvais sous la IVe République, Beauvais, Galerie de la Tapisserie, 1997 Armelle Bouchet-Mazas, le paquebot France, éditions Norma, 2006, ill.p.170 Cat. Expo. Le chic ! Arts décoratifs et mobilier de 1930 à 1960, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2022-23Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshop. With label. Circa 1960. -
Les 3 Grâces (the 3 Graces)
Braque is another 20th century artist who produced, however modestly, works in tapestry form. It was originally at the request of Marie Cuttoli in 1933, that he submitted works for reproduction as tapestries (Nature morte au guéridon [Still life on an occasional table], conserved at the Musée des Beaux Arts in Grenoble). In the 1950’s and 60’s it was Pierre Baudouin, in association with the weavers of Aubusson and the Nationale Manufactures, who would be asked to transcribe to cartoon format some of the artist’s productions. At the same time, shortly before his death in 1963, Braque made a last series of images in gouache, taking as their theme metamorphoses, which were destined for reproduction in various different media. Tapestry would be one of these. “The three graces”, 1962, is one which would appear in sculpture, or as jewelry. In it we observe the lyrical and synthetic style to be found in the artist’s last works (obviously the decor of the ceiling in the Henri II room at the Louvre, les Oiseaux [the birds] 1953 comes to mind).Aubusson tapestry woven by the Four workshop. N°3/6. Woven circa 2000, after a 1962 gouache. -
Soleil orange (orange sun)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Bertaut workshop. N°3/8. 1964. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the foremost figures in the renaissance of the art of tapestry. His earliest contributions to the field date back to 1943 when he designed cartoons for the passenger ship “la Marseillaise”. A close associate of Lurçat, whose theories he would adopt (limited palette, numbered cartoons...), he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie), and soon after, a teacher at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The state gave him several commissions most of them at the Aubusson workshop, and some at the Gobelins : the most spectacular of these being for the University of Caen, the Theatre in Le Mans, the passenger ship France or the Prefecture of the Creuse département ... In as much as Picart le Doux’s aesthetic is close to that of Lurçat, so also is his inspiration and his subject matter, although in a register which is more decorative than symbolic, where he brings together heavenly bodies (the sun, the moon, the stars...), the elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds...), man, literary quotation ... Our cartoon repeats, asymmetrically, ‘Winter Solstice’: the evocation of the Seasons, a major theme for the artist, will continue throughout his work. Bibliography : Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966 Valentine Fougère, Tapisseries de notre temps, les éditions du temps, 1969, reproduced p.84 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972 Exhibition Catalogue, Jean Picart le Doux, tapisseries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 -
Melinjana
After having established himself at the Gobelins, Daniel Drouin moved to Venasque. He designed numerous tapestries woven on a high-warp loom. The variety of the materials used, his propensity for abstraction and the fact that the artist wove his own designs conformed to certain preoccupations of the “Nouvelle Tapisserie” movement of the time, without however escaping from the 2 dimensional nature of the artform.Tapestry woven in the atelier de la Tuilière. With label. Circa 1970. -
Le pêcheur (the fisherman)
Lurçat’s artistic production was immense : it is however his role as the renovator of the art of tapestry design which ensures his lasting renown. As early as 1917, he started producing works on canvas, then in the 20’s and 30’s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins workshop dates back to 1937, at the same time he discovered the tapestry of the Apocalypse which was essential in his decision to devote himself to tapestry design. He first tackled the technical aspects with François Tabard, then on his installation at Aubusson during the war, he established his technique : broad point, a simplified palette, outlined cartoons with colours indicated by pre-ordained numbers. A huge production then follows (over 1000 cartoons) amplified by his desire to include his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) and the collaboration with the art gallery La Demeure and Denise Majorel, and then by his role as a tireless advocate for the medium around the world. His tapestries reveal a pictorial world which is specifically decorative, with a very personal symbolic iconography : cosmogony (the sun, the planets, the zodiac, the four elements…) stylised vegetation, fauna (rams, cocks, butterflies, chimera …) standing out against a background without perspective (voluntarily different from painting) and, in his more ambitious work, designed as an invitation to share in a poetic (he sometimes weaves quotations into his tapestries) and philosophical (the grand themes are broached from the wartime period onwards) vision whose climax is the “Chant du Monde” (Song of the World) (Jean Lurçat Museum , ancien hôpital Saint Jean, Angers) which remained unfinished at his death. This is an inverted fragment of a larger cartoon (250 x 180 cm). The themes of fishing and hunting, often echoing each other (the net itself is sometimes used to catch birds), are recurrent (see the ‘Hunting and fishing’ cartoon, Fraysse auction 19.10.2011 n°10 for example), illustrating a confrontation between Man and Nature. Bibliography : Tapisseries de Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957, ill. n°17 Exhibition Catalogue Lurçat, 10 ans après, Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Exhibition catalogue Les domaines de Jean Lurçat, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1986 Symposium Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie in Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie 1992 Exhibition Catalogue Dialogues avec Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992 Exhibition catalogue Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 Jean Lurçat, le chant du monde Angers 2007 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2016Aubusson tapestry woven in the Braquenié workshop. With a certificate from the artist's widow. Circa 1955. -
Le grand-duc (the eagle-owl)
Lurçat’s artistic production was immense : it is however his role as the renovator of the art of tapestry design which ensures his lasting renown. As early as 1917, he started producing works on canvas, then in the 20’s and 30’s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins workshop dates back to 1937, at the same time he discovered the tapestry of the Apocalypse which was essential in his decision to devote himself to tapestry design. He first tackled the technical aspects with François Tabard, then on his installation at Aubusson during the war, he established his technique : broad point, a simplified palette, outlined cartoons with colours indicated by pre-ordained numbers. A huge production then follows (over 1000 cartoons) amplified by his desire to include his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) and the collaboration with the art gallery La Demeure and Denise Majorel, and then by his role as a tireless advocate for the medium around the world. His tapestries reveal a pictorial world which is specifically decorative, with a very personal symbolic iconography : cosmogony (the sun, the planets, the zodiac, the four elements…) stylised vegetation, fauna (rams, cocks, butterflies, chimera …) standing out against a background without perspective (voluntarily different from painting) and, in his more ambitious work, designed as an invitation to share in a poetic (he sometimes weaves quotations into his tapestries) and philosophical (the grand themes are broached from the wartime period onwards) vision whose climax is the “Chant du Monde” (Song of the World) (Jean Lurçat Museum , ancien hôpital Saint Jean, Angers) which remained unfinished at his death. Lurçat's naturalistic representations of animals are unusual (Maingonnat comes to mind). But the flat coloured backgrounds segment and distinguish the different species, in a contrasting partitioning that is characteristic of the artist. Bibliography : Tapisseries de Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Exhibition Catalogue Lurçat, 10 ans après, Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Exhibition catalogue Les domaines de Jean Lurçat, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1986 Symposium Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie in Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie 1992 Exhibition Catalogue Dialogues avec Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992 Exhibition catalogue Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 Jean Lurçat, le chant du monde Angers 2007 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2016Aubusson tapestry woven in the Tabard workshop. With label. Circa 1950. -
Byzance (Byzantium)
Toffoli produced a large number of tapestries in collaboration with the Robert Four workshop from 1976 onwards, designing several hundred cartoons. In them we find post-cubist transparent effects which are characteristic of the artist, as indeed are the subjects treated. Thus Toffoli’s tapestries do not differ from his painting : here the dome of Hagia Sophia and the Bosphorus transport the observer elsewhere.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Four workshop. With label, n°3/6. Circa 1980. -
Procyon
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. With signed label, n°3/4. 1968.A member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie), Wogensky is one of the many artists who would follow in Lurçat’s footsteps immediately after the war. At first influenced by his predecessor, Wogensky’s subsequent work (159 cartoons according to the 1989 exhibition catalogue) would evolve during the 1960’s towards a, not completely self-avowed, lyrical abstraction, from cosmic-astronomical themes expressed in decomposed, moving, birdlike shapes to cartoons both more refined and less dense. Although always claiming to be a painter, the artist’s conception of tapestry is extremely well thought out : “the realisation of a mural cartoon.... requires the consideration of a space which is no longer ours alone, by the nature of its dimensions, its scale, it also imposes a grand gesture which transforms and accentuates our presence.” « Procyon » is a work inspired by Wogensky’s « cosmic » vein (it’s title alone bears witness to the fact) which lasted through the 1960’s and of which “Cosmos” (1968 Strasbourg University) and “Galaxy” (1970, Sénat Palais du Luxembourg) would be the high points. Shading (omnipresent) and blocks of colour co-exist in a subtle harmony, evoking a curious, unknown world with elements of the infinitely small as seen through a microscope and the infinitely large. A similar tapestry is kept at the Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine in Angers. Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue Robert Wogensky, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie, 1989 Exhibition catalogue Robert Wogensky, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1989 Exhibition catalogue Tissages d’ateliers, tissages d’artistes, 10 ans d’enrichissement des Collections, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 2004, ill. p.101 Exhibition catalogue Collections ! Collections !, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 2019-2020, ill. p.11 -
Algues en profondeurs (algae in the depths)
Matégot, originally a decorator, then creator of artefacts and furniture (an activity he abandoned in 1959) met François Tabard in 1945 and gave him his first cartoons, first of all figurative then rapidly of abstract design in the 1950’s. He became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres Cartonniers de Tapisserie) in 1949, participated in many international exhibitions (Matégot, like Lurçat before him, was an untiring advocate of the art of tapestry) fulfilled numerous public commissions, sometimes of monumental proportions (“Rouen” 85m2 for the Préfecture of the Seine Maritime département, and also tapestries for Orly Airport, for the Maison de la Radio, for the IMF...) and designed no fewer than 629 cartoons up until the 1970’s. In 1990 the Matégot foundation for contemporary tapestry was inaugurated in Bethesda, U.S.A. Matégot is an artist, like Wogensky, Tourlière or Prassinos, who turns wool textiles resolutely towards the abstract: at first lyrical, geometric in the 70’s, exploiting various technical aspects of the loom : colour graduations, shading, irregularities... The palette of colours, “ camouflage style”,used in this tapestry heralds the look of cartoons to come from this artist but the lyrical treatment of shade and light are absolutely characteristic of the 1960’s. : if the subject (the seabed) is rare, we find the usual effects of transparency rendered by subtle gradations in a limited chromatic range. Bibliography : Waldemar Georges, Mathieu Matégot, Prisme des Arts special issue, 1957 Exhibition catalogue, Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991 Patrick Favardin, Mathieu Matégot, Editions Norma, 2014Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With signed label, n°1/6. Circa 1960. -
Rives (shores)
Lurçat’s artistic production was immense : it is however his role as the renovator of the art of tapestry design which ensures his lasting renown. As early as 1917, he started producing works on canvas, then in the 20’s and 30’s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins workshop dates back to 1937, at the same time he discovered the tapestry of the Apocalypse which was essential in his decision to devote himself to tapestry design. He first tackled the technical aspects with François Tabard, then on his installation at Aubusson during the war, he established his technique : broad point, a simplified palette, outlined cartoons with colours indicated by pre-ordained numbers. A huge production then follows (over 1000 cartoons) amplified by his desire to include his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) and the collaboration with the art gallery La Demeure and Denise Majorel, and then by his role as a tireless advocate for the medium around the world. His tapestries reveal a pictorial world which is specifically decorative, with a very personal symbolic iconography : cosmogony (the sun, the planets, the zodiac, the four elements…) stylised vegetation, fauna (rams, cocks, butterflies, chimera …) standing out against a background without perspective (voluntarily different from painting) and, in his more ambitious work, designed as an invitation to share in a poetic (he sometimes weaves quotations into his tapestries) and philosophical (the grand themes are broached from the wartime period onwards) vision whose climax is the “Chant du Monde” (Song of the World) (Jean Lurçat Museum , ancien hôpital Saint Jean, Angers) which remained unfinished at his death. The abundant plant and fish motifs respond to each other, but in a typical Lurçat inversion, with the aquatic element above the banks. Bibliography : Tapisseries de Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Exhibition Catalogue Lurçat, 10 ans après, Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Exhibition catalogue Les domaines de Jean Lurçat, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1986 Symposium Jean Lurçat et la renaissance de la tapisserie in Aubusson, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la tapisserie 1992 Exhibition Catalogue Dialogues avec Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992 Exhibition catalogue Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 Jean Lurçat, le chant du monde Angers 2007 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Exhibition Catalogue Jean Lurçat au seul bruit du soleil, Paris, galerie des Gobelins, 2016Aubusson tapestry woven in the Goubely workshop. With label. Circa 1955. -
La vérité cruelle d'un ancien jeu (the crual truth of an old game)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshop. With label. 1970. Best known as an engraver (and, be it said, one of the most important of the XXth century), Pierre Courtin designed several tapestry cartoons (of which one measuring 110m2 (!) is to be seen at the International Labour Organization in Geneva), some of which, like ours, are taken from his engravings.. In this piece, the particular and personal aesthetic of the artist is revealed in the original grouping together of geometrical forms, which can be seen as a little reminiscent of ancient civilisations (pre-columbian particularly). Strange also the choice of colour scheme of this artist, who distances himself from the strong colour contrasts characteristic of his colleagues. -
Vendémiaire
The story is well known: following the commission for the ‘4 Parts of the World’ to be woven at the Gobelins, Dubreuil was one of the 3 artists, along with Gromaire and Lurçat, sent by Guiillaume Janneau, administrator of the Manufactures Nationales, to Aubusson at the end of 1939, to renovate local tapestry production (with the commission for a set of tapestries on the theme of Gardens). Although he shared Lurçat's ideas on the influence that medieval tapestry should have in revitalising the medium, his abundant and resolutely naturalistic cartoons (lacking the dreamlike quality of Coutaud, for example) distanced him from his colleague, in favour of a closer relationship with the work of Maingonnat. Our tapestry bears witness to Dubreuil's collaboration with Antoine Behna's A.R.T. (Atelier de Rénovation de la Tapisserie), of which Janneau, discredited for his role during the War, was the artistic and technical adviser. The allegorical register bears witness to Dubreuil's classicism, between academic nudes and still lifes reflecting the History of Painting. This workshop wove in both high and low heddle : the 1990 sale catalogue included one example woven in each technique. Bibliography : G. Janneau, A. Behna, Tapisseries de notre temps, 1950, ill. n°64 Millon-Robert sale catalogue 3.10.1990 n°28-29, 64Tapestry woven by Coffinet for Ami de la Paix. Circa 1945. -
Les chouettes (the owls)
Edmond Dubrunfaut can be considered as the great 20th century renovator of the Belgian tapestry tradition. He founded a weavers’ workshop in Tournai as early as 1942, then, in 1947, created the Centre de Rénovation de la Tapisserie de Tournai. He produced for various Belgian workshops (Chaudoir, de Wit,...) numerous cartoons destined notably to adorn Belgian embassies throughout the world. Moreover, Dubrunfaut was a teacher of monumental art forms at the Academie des Beaux-Arts de Mons from 1947 to 1978 and then, in 1979, contributed to the creation of the Fondation de la tapisserie, des arts du tissu et des arts muraux de Tournai, a veritable heritage centre for the art of the tapestry in Wallonie. His style, characterised by figuration, strong colour contrasts, draws direct inspiration from nature and animal life (as with Perrot, for example, this artist has a net predilection for birdlife). From 1955 and throughout the 1960s, the Wit manufactory wove a considerable number of tapestries after Dubrunfaut, the human figure soon giving way to floral subjects and, above all, of birds. Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue Dubrunfaut et la renaissance de la tapisserie, tableaux, dessins, peintures, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Mons, 1982-1983.Tapestry woven by the de Wit workshop. Circa 1960. -
Les enfants (children)
Toffoli produced a large number of tapestries in collaboration with the Robert Four workshop from 1976 onwards, designing several hundred cartoons. In them we find post-cubist transparent effects which are characteristic of the artist, as indeed are the subjects treated. Thus Toffoli’s tapestries do not differ from his painting : travelling for inspiration, here he illustrates children playing in a street on the other side of the planet.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Four workshop. With illegible label, n°EA. Circa 1980. -
Le jardin d'amour (the garden of love)
Tapestry, probably woven in Aubusson. 1947. Lurçat approached Saint-Saëns, originally a painter of murals, in 1940. And during the war the latter produced the first of his allegorical masterpieces, tapestries reflecting indignation, combat, resistance : “les Vierges folles (the foolish virgins), “Thésée et le Minotaure” (Theseus and the Minotaur). At the end of the war, as a natural development he joined up with Lurçat, whose convictions he shared (concerning a simplified palette, outlined cartoons with colours indicated by pre-ordained numbers, and the specific nature of tapestry design…) at the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie). His universe, where the human figure, stretched, elongated, ooccupies an important place (particularly when compared to his companions Lurçat or Picart le Doux), pivots around traditional themes : woman, the Commedia dell’arte, Greek mythology… refined by the brilliance of the colours and the simplification of the layout. His work would evolve later, in the 1960’s, towards cartoons of a more lyrical design, almost abstract where elemental and cosmic forces would dominate. ‘Le jardin d'amour’, an evocative allegory of the terrestrial paradise sometimes illustrated in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, bears witness to the classical references of Saint-Saëns who, in the same year, conceived "Orphée" and "La Comédie italienne" : theatre, ancient myths and biblical references (the “Vierges folles” cartoon also comes to mind) were omnipresent sources of inspiration. Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue Saint-Saëns, the tapestries, Aubusson, Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, 1987 Exhibition catalogue Marc Saint-Saëns, tapestries, 1935-1979, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine 1997-1998 -
Matégot, originally a decorator, then creator of artefacts and furniture (an activity he abandoned in 1959) met François Tabard in 1945 and gave him his first cartoons, first of all figurative then rapidly of abstract design in the 1950’s. He became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres Cartonniers de Tapisserie) in 1949, participated in many international exhibitions (Matégot, like Lurçat before him, was an untiring advocate of the art of tapestry) fulfilled numerous public commissions, sometimes of monumental proportions (“Rouen” 85m2 for the Préfecture of the Seine Maritime département, and also tapestries for Orly Airport, for the Maison de la Radio, for the IMF...) and designed no fewer than 629 cartoons up until the 1970’s. In 1990 the Matégot foundation for contemporary tapestry was inaugurated in Bethesda, U.S.A. Matégot is an artist, like Wogensky, Tourlière or Prassinos, who turns wool textiles resolutely towards the abstract: at first lyrical, geometric in the 70’s, exploiting various technical aspects of the loom : colour graduations, shading, irregularities... While Matégot's interest in aeronautics was very strong at the time (his tapestry for Orly in particular dates from 1959, ‘Cap Canaveral’ from 1958...), his liking for the treatment of great myths is echoed here: Icarus (there was also ‘Vulcan’, ‘Daedalus’...), serves as a transition, in an identical treatment (to be compared with ‘Orly’), to evoke the same conquest of the Air... Bibliography : Waldemar Georges, Mathieu Matégot, Prisme des Arts special issue, 1957 Exhibition catalogue, Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991, ill. p.31 Patrick Favardin, Mathieu Matégot, Editions Norma, 2014
Icare (Icarus)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. N°1/6. 1960. -
Pampa
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Four workshop. With label, n°2/6. Circa 1990.Despite considering herself first and foremost a sculptor, Hedva Ser also produced some cartoons, woven at the Four workshop in Aubusson, which evoke atmospheric scenes (there are also “Esterel”, “Sinaï”, “Océan”...), where clouds, reflections, waves and dunes... are represented by the effective use of different threads and stitches.
