Au crépuscule (at dusk)
Tapestry woven in the DMW workshop.
With signed label.
1974.
-
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, this cartoon is characteristic of the aforementioned predilection, but here the realistic representation of the motif is a departure from Perrot’s habitual stylisation. Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue Dubrunfaut et la renaissance de la tapisserie, tableaux, dessins, peintures, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Mons, 1982-1983, n°254.
-
Kalinka
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Andraud workshop. With label, n°4/6. 1980.Established 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. The title of this piece, which will be evocative to lovers of folk-song, is the name (but in Russian !) of the subject illustrated : kalinka meaning guelder-rose. -
Le rouge et le noir (the red and the black)
Lucas was a protagonist of tapestry renewal in Belgium following on from the “Forces murales” collective. He gave a certain number of cartoons to the Braquenié workshop in Malines in the years 1956 – 1957, designed in a style somewhat reminiscent of Picart le Doux.Aubusson tapestry woven in the Braquenié workshop. With label. Circa 1960. -
Poissons et grives (fish and thrushes)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Ponthieu workshop. With signed label. Circa 1960. -
Composition
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Four workshop. N°6/6. Circa 1980. -
Bouquet d'anniversaire (Birthday bouquet)
Van Vlasselaer (1907-1982) is known for having created numerous monumental wall paintings as well as stain glass windows. From 1950 onwards he created tapestry cartoons inspired by scenes of everyday life, traditional Flemish folklore and natural subjects in keeping with the aesthetic of the group “Forces Murales”. He evolved from the figurative of his early work towards dense designs incorporating sharp-edged foliage laid out against geometrically inspired backgrounds influenced by Cubism. “From 1969 onwards, his style became ever more flamboyant. One of the most remarkable examples is without doubt “Bouquet d’anniversaire”... on a monumental scale... Each detail is strikingly original. The foliage and the blossoms are rendered in such a way to take them beyond their natural condition in a fantastical style that still retains a certain rigour...” (R. Avermaete, van Vlasselaer Tapisseries, p.97) Bibliography : R. Avermaete, van Vlasselaer Tapisseries, Editions Arcade, 1973, ill. p.88Tapestry woven by the Braquenié workshop. 1969. -
Plain-chant
Sautour-Gaillard had his first cartoon woven in 1971 by the Legoueix workshop (a collaboration which was to last), and from then on he designed many very large-scale projects of which the most spectacular was “Pour un certain idéal” a series of 17 tapestries dealing with the theme of Olympianism (property of the Musée de l’Olympisme in Lausanne). If at first close to lyrical abstraction, the artist produced in the 1990’s cartoons superimposing different decorative motifs, textures and figures whose unity originated in the woven texture itself. The graphic characters which figure here suggest calligraphy and are characteristic of this artist’s tapestries from 1973 – 74, using these same colours. Here is how, in reference to Music, he defined his work at the time : “From my earliest efforts, I chose to make work which would not be a synthesis of images but rather construed as the orchestration of an architecture of colours ... The sensation of an imperceptible rustling as when the careful listening to a concert becomes tapestry.” Bibliography : D. Cavelier, Jean-René Sautour-Gaillard, la déchirure, Lelivredart, 2013, ill. p.172-173Aubusson tapestry woven in the Legoueix workshop. With signed label, n°1/4. 1974. -
Les épées d'or (the golden swords)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Braquenié workshop. With label. Circa 1960. -
Lente approche (slow approach)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Braquenié workshop. With label. Circa 1960. -
Soleil d'août (august sun)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Braquenié workshop. With signed label. 1958.
