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Aubusson tapestry woven in the Berthaut workshop. With label. 1951.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 insipiration 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 ... Birds are a recurring motif of the artist in the first half of the 50s, as well as the flames punctuated by dots on the rim, one of Picart le Doux's signatures. Moreover, the limited chromatic range is reminiscent of traditional "verdures" tapestries. This tapestry is reproduced in Bruzeau's book, as No. 30. Bibliography : Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions cercle d'art, 1972
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Le compotier (the fruit stand)
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 insipiration 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 ... A trellis background, reguarly found in Picart le Doux’s work in the 1950’s, notably in « Nature morte à la fontaine », woven at the Gobelins in 1952, is the expression of a certain decorative inclination to a style of tapestry popular in earlier times. “Le compotier” is a reworking of “les fruits et la guitare”, a larger work, woven at the Berthaut workshop in 1955. Bibliography : Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972, ill. n°64 Exhibition catalogue Jean Picart le Doux Tapisseries, Musée municipal d’Art et d’Histoire, Saint-Denis, 1976 Exhibition catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980Aubusson tapestry woven by the Braquenié workshop. Complete with signed label. 1956. -
Solaire (solar )
Aubusson tapestry woven in Pinton workshop. With a label signed by the artist, n°2/6. Circa 1970.Odette Caly, who specialised in the depiction of bouquets, designed numerous cartoons for Aubusson, woven in the Pinton, Henry or Hamot workshops. Her inspiration, rather rural usually, has oriented here towards more exotic flowers, highlighted by the green background. Bibliography : Multi-authored, Caly, Filmed Publications of Art and History, 1972, reproduced No. 24 -
Annick
Tapestry woven by the Angers workshop. With label, n°1/6. 1968.Elie Grekoff, whose aesthetic is similar to that of Lurçat, designed over 300 cartons The motif of a sun radiating foliage is a classic with this artist ; it is possible that the title refers to a weaver at the Atelier de Tapisserie d’Angers (Angers Tapestry Workshop), which opened in the same year of 1968 and where Grekoff was the first painter-cartonnier to be produced. -
Composition
Maurice André settled in Aubusson for the duration of the second world war. A founding member of the group “Tapisserie de France” and a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie), he developed a personal style, different from that of Lurçat, characterised by rigorous, cubist-influenced flat areas of colour, often using a limited palette ; he received large-scale public commissions for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg (“L’Europe unie dans le Travail et la Paix”) or for the French pavilion at the Brussels Exhibition in 1958 (“La Technique moderne au service de l’Homme”). Gradually (as with Wogensky and Prassinos,...) his style evolved towards more abstraction, firstly lyrical and then more and more geometric, in a way very similar to Matégot. Always geometric (going as far as pure abstraction in the 1970’s) Maurice André’s style is here limited to a cubic, kaleidoscopic vision : we can distinguish birds, roots, waves and perhaps a cage, …, all themes that can also be found in Lurçat’s work.Aubusson tapestry woven in the Tapisseries de France workshop. Circa 1960. -
Belzébuth
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Goubely workshop. With label. Circa 1950.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 Tapiisserie) 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. Beelzebub is a demon : the billy goat in Lurçat’s personal bestiary represents evil, the demonic force often associated with and couterbalanced by the cock. But it is also a living force incrusted, as here, in vegetation and the natural world. All the artist’s particular iconography is here in these goats, cocks and lizards. Bibliography : Exhibition catalogue Jean Lurçat, Tapisseries nouvelles, Maison de la pensée Française, 1956 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 Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 Jean Lurçat, le chant du monde Angers 2007. -
Composition
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Picaud workshop. Circa 1960.Born in 1912, Farvèze is one of the second generation of painter-cartonniers whose heyday dates from the end of the 1950’s, with the likes of Grékoff, Ferréol, Petit, Potin, … Influenced both by his meeting with Gleizes and a trip to Senegal which brought prestigious state commissions, he would be chosen to participate in the second Biennale de Lausanne in 1965. This piece is characterised by a highly stylised and very colourful design ; the absence of the certificate of origin means that we have no indication of the title or subject - although various animal-shaped forms can be distinguished. -
Composition
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. An abstract cartoon, typical of the artist’s work, in a style which are redolent of Borderie or Wogensky, and which bear witness to the unceasing originality of his creativity.Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshop. N°1/6. Circa 1960. -
Petite harpe des bois (little harp of the woods)
Tapestry woven in the Picaud workshop. Complete with certificate of origin signed by the artist's widow, n°3/6. Circa 1975. 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 insipiration 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 ... This cartoon refers back to « la harpe des forêts”, the sylvan harp, of 1953 (Bruzeau n°45). The link between music and nature is a leitmotiv in the work of Picart le Doux : these tapestries are often animated by birds outlined agains the vertical background of the strings. Bibliography : Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972 Exhibition catalogue Jean Picart le Doux Tapisseries, Musée municipal d’Art et d’Histoire, Saint-Denis, 1976 Exhibition catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 Exhibition Catalogue le salon de musique, église du château, Felletin, 2002, ill. p.54
