The Harp of the Forests
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop.
With its bolduc.
1953.
Jean Picart le Doux was one of the leading figures in the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field dated back to 1943: he then produced cartoons for the ocean 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 professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts décoratifs. The State commissioned him to create numerous woven cartoons, mostly at Aubusson, and in some cases at the Gobelins: the most spectacular would be those for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the ocean liner France, or the Prefecture of the Creuse,…. If Picart le Doux’s conceptions were close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes were also, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where the constellations (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, nature (grain, the vine, fish, birds…), humankind, texts,… found themselves alongside one another.
The harp-tree was a recurring motif in Picart le Doux’s work (one sometimes also finds » the lyre-tree », Bruzeau n°44), sensitive to the Nature–Music syncretism, as well as to the decorative value of the multicolored cord-stripes, on a green ground that smells of humus.
Bibliography :
Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972, ill. n°45
Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapisseries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976
Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980
