Sphere and doves
Tapestry “Sphère et colombes” woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its bolduc signed by the artist. circa 1954.
Jean Picart le Doux was one of the leading figures in the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field dated from 1943: he then produced cartoons for the ocean liner “la Marseillaise”. Close to Lurçat, whose theories (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…) he adopted, he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie), and soon became a teacher at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts décoratifs. The State commissioned him to produce numerous cartoons, most of them woven in Aubusson, some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular were destined for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the ocean liner France, or the Préfecture de la Creuse,… If the designs of Picart le Doux were close to those of Lurçat, so too were his sources of inspiration and themes, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where the stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, nature (wheat, the vine, fish, birds…), humankind, texts,… all coexist. A typical association by Picart le Doux, where Nature (organized into a French formal garden) populated with doves is set alongside a triple allegory of letters (the book), the arts (the mandolin), and the sciences (the sphere): the embodiment of a classical art of living. Bibliography : Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapisseries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980
