« Le luth et les colombes »
« Tapestry woven at the Aubusson workshop by Berthaut. With its bolduc signed by the artist, No. 6/8. Circa 1955. »
« Jean Picart le Doux was one of the leading figures in the tapestry revival. His beginnings in the field dated back to 1943: he then produced cartoons for the ocean liner “la Marseillaise”. Closely associated with 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 École Nationale Supérieure des Arts décoratifs. The State commissioned many of his woven cartoons—most of them at Aubusson, some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular were made for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the ocean liner France, or the Préfecture of the Creuse, …. While the designs by Picart le Doux were close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes also were, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where the celestial bodies (the sun, the moon, the stars…), elements, nature (grain, the vine, fish, birds…), humankind, texts, …. « Le luth et les colombes » drew on a denser and vaster cartoon from 1949, « les oiseaux s’envolent », intended to symbolize the Liberation—a theme also found in « la cage ouverte » (1953). Bibliography : Marthe Belle-Jouffray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966, reproduit n°3 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
