Bouquet papillon (bunch butterfly)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Legoueix workshop.
With signed label, n°4/6.
Circa 1980.
From illustration to tapestry, there's only one (big) step to take - remember that Dom Robert was an illuminator! It was he, and Madeleine David, one of the co-directors of the La Demeure gallery, with whom she was close, that encouraged Jacqueline Duhême to take up the medium: preceded by her reputation as an “imagière” (cf. bibliography), illustrating Prévert, Eluard and Druon, she devoted herself to tapestry from 1967 (when she took classes with Tourlière at the ENAD in Aubusson, and became an enthusiast of numbered cartoons) to 1981, with La Demeure even devoting a solo exhibition to her in 1976.
Her world, inspired by medieval mille-fleurs tapestries, is also reminiscent of dom Robert, but a dom Robert on amphetamines, where Nature is abundant, exotic and exuberant (cf. ‘Safari’, ‘l'oiseau de Paradis’).
On a smaller, more polished scale, our cartoon bears witness to the colourful vitality of Duhême's inspiration.
Bibliography :
Cat. Expo. Jacqueline Duhême l’imagière, bibliothèque Forney, 2019