Le merle blanc (the white blackbird)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Tabard workshop.
With signed label.
Circa 1965.
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.
With this representation of a bird whose rarity value is equal to that of a five-legged sheep, Ilhe expresses no ornithological pretention, merely an illustration of the natural world as a collection of singular phenomena.
