Sun-lyre
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Hamot workshop. With its bolduc Signed. 1957. Jean Picart le Doux was one of the great driving forces behind the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in this field dated back to 1943: he then produced Cartoons for the liner « la Marseillaise ». Close to Lurçat, whom he followed in his theories (limited tones, Numbered Cartoons,…), he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie), and soon became a teacher at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts décoratifs. The State commissioned him for numerous Cartoons woven for the most part in Aubusson, and for some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular were those for the Université de Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the liner France, and the Préfecture de la Creuse,…. While the designs of Picart le Doux were close to those of Lurçat, so were his sources of inspiration and themes—though in a more decorative than symbolic register—where the stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, and nature (wheat, the vine, fish, birds…), as well as man and texts… feature side by side. A Cartoon of striking effect: the symmetry of the lyre (one of Picart le Doux’s preferred instruments) is adorned with a Sun-face (very Louis XIV), a commonplace motif from all the solar myths. This Cartoon announces « le Soleil d’Orphée », which will adorn the bar of the liner « France ». Bibliography : Marthe Belle-Jouffray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966, ill. no. 9 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972, ill. n°82 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapisseries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980, ill.
