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Hommage à l'abbé Breuil (a tribute to Father Breuil)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. Complete with certificate of origin. Circa 1970. Perrot began his career as a cartoon designer at the end of the war, making almost 500 cartoons including numerous commissions from the state, most of which were woven at Aubusson. His style which is particularly rich and decorative is eminently recognisable : a crowd of butterflies or birds, most often, stands out against a background of vegetation, reminiscent of the millefleurs tapestries (which would also inspire Dom Robert). Uncharacteristic cartoon whose inspiration lies in the cave paintings at Lascaux ; here it can be said that never has a tapestry merited quite so well the term « wall art ». Perrot’s input is, in the end, relatively modest : the use of saturated colours (particularly the mauve-pink background), the overlapping of the motifs (which are more spaced out in the cave itself), superficial laid over blotching,... If Perrot is an habitué of hommage-cartoons (Pergaud, Redouté, Audubon,...) this particular example is interesting because of the well-established proximity between the artist and the dedicatee, “the Pope of Prehistory”: here the hommage owes nothing to the artificiality of an official commission. Bibliography : Tapisseries, dessins, peintures, gravures de René Perrot, Dessein et Tolra, 1982 -
La roue (the wheel)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. Complete with certificate of origin. Circa 1970. Perrot began his career as a cartoon designer at the end of the war, making almost 500 cartoons including numerous commissions from the state, most of which were woven at Aubusson. His style which is particularly rich and decorative is eminently recognisable : a crowd of butterflies or birds, most often, stands out against a background of vegetation, reminiscent of the millefleurs tapestries (which would also inspire Dom Robert). The mediaeval inspiration of a flower-studded, khaki background, numerous birds, all the characteristic elements of Perrot’s cartoons can be found in this particular example. Bibliography: Tapisseries, dessins, peintures, gravures de René Perrot, Dessein et Tolra, 1982 -
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Rivière des Borderies workshop. With label. 1951.Perrot began his career as a cartoon designer at the end of the war, making almost 500 cartoons including numerous commissions from the state, most of which were woven at Aubusson. His style which is particularly rich and decorative is eminently recognisable : a crowd of butterflies or birds, most often, stands out against a background of vegetation, reminiscent of the millefleurs tapestries (which would also inspire Dom Robert). Ornithological representations in all their various manifestations are extremely common in Perrot’s work : for example “la discorde” and “la méditation” designed for the Palais de Justice (High Court) in Paris which are illustrated respectively by grouse and owls. What else to illustrate “La Loi” and inspire respect in the observor than the severe glare of a majestic eagle. Bibliography : Tapisseries, dessins, peintures, gravures de René Perrot, Dessein et Tolra, 1982
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Hibou (Owl)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshop. 1955.Perrot began his career as a cartoon designer at the end of the war, making almost 500 cartoons including numerous commissions from the state, most of which were woven at Aubusson. His style which is particularly rich and decorative is eminently recognisable : a crowd of butterflies or birds, most often, stands out against a background of vegetation, reminiscent of the millefleurs tapestries (which would also inspire Dom Robert). This tapestry is a typical example of the artist’s portraits of birds ; the owl appears, as often in his work, associated with other birds, against a background inspired by the flower-strewn mediaeval tapestries. Bibliography : Tapisseries, dessins, peintures, gravures de René Perrot, Dessein et Tolra, 1982. -
Tauromachie (bullfighting)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Rivière des Borderies workshop. 1946.Perrot began his career as a cartoon designer at the end of the war, making almost 500 cartoons including numerous commissions from the state, most of which were woven at Aubusson. His style which is particularly rich and decorative is eminently recognisable : a crowd of butterflies or birds, most often, stands out against a background of vegetation, reminiscent of the millefleurs tapestries (which would also inspire Dom Robert). This tapestry is atypical in Perrot’s production : an audaciously strident choice of colours, an unusually sober motif whose singular theme, including human figures, is treated almost choreographically ; we are close here to the vision of Saint-Saëns. Perhaps then this particular design was specially commissioned ? Bibliography : Tapisseries, dessins, peintures, gravures de René Perrot, Dessein et Tolra, 1982 -
Oiseaux (birds)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tapisseries de France cooperative. 1952.Perrot began his career as a cartoon designer at the end of the war, making almost 500 cartoons including numerous commissions from the state, most of which were woven at Aubusson. His style which is particularly rich and decorative is eminently recognisable : a crowd of butterflies or birds, most often, stands out against a background of vegetation, reminiscent of the millefleurs tapestries (which would also inspire Dom Robert). If in Perrot's tapestries birds are often present (almost a trademark !) the use of landscape as a background is much rarer despite the artist having produced numerous works in gouache of his travels (Doubs, Auvergne, Collioure, the Canaries...), works which, despite their sensitivity, remain essentially little known. Bibliography : Tapisseries, dessins, peintures, gravures de René Perrot, Dessein et Tolra, 1982 -
Bouquet d'artifice (Bouquet of "flowerworks")
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. Avec son bolduc signé de l'artiste. Circa 1960.First a poster artist, then an artist-ethnographer during the war, Perrot began his career as a cartoon designer at its end, making almost 500 cartoons, most of which were woven at Aubusson, including numerous commissions from the state (with 33 cartoons, Perrot is the most prolific tapestry designer in the Mobilier National’s collection!). His style which is particularly rich and decorative is eminently recognisable : he illustrates in flat colours (with neither shading nor picking) an abundance of animals (most often birds), standing out with no perspective, against a background of vegetation, in a style reminiscent of the mediaeval mille-fleurs tapestries. Rather like a floral display of pyrotechnics, « Bouquet d’artifice » (Bouquet of “flowerworks”) presents an abundant spray of numerous varieties, some even slightly stylised, in a riot of colours accentuated by the black background : an ode to Nature. Bibliography : Tapisseries, dessins, peintures, gravures de René Perrot, Dessein et Tolra, 1982 Exhibition catalogue René Perrot, mon pauvre cœur est un hibou, Aubusson, Cité Internationale de la Tapisserie, 2023 -
La mort du lièvre (the hare's death)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Rivière des Borderies workshop. 1946.Perrot began his career as a cartoon designer at the end of the war, making almost 500 cartoons including numerous commissions from the state, most of which were woven at Aubusson. His style which is particularly rich and decorative is eminently recognisable : a crowd of butterflies or birds, most often, stands out against a background of vegetation, reminiscent of the millefleurs tapestries (which would also inspire Dom Robert). One of Perrot's earliest tapestries, contemporary with ‘La chasse au renard’ (‘The Fox Hunt’) which featured in the seminal 1946 exhibition, our carton bears witness to Perrot's early inspiration: a taste for Nature, animals, an interest in botany, geology and inhabited landscapes (man is absent here, but he lives in the village, he hunts)... The artist-ethnographer recycled in tapestry the observations made for the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions during the war. Bibliography : Tapisseries, dessins, peintures, gravures de René Perrot, Dessein et Tolra, 1982, reproduced p.83 Cat. Expo. René Perrot, mon pauvre cœur est un hibou, Aubusson, Cité de la Tapisserie, 2023 -
Faisan (phaesant)
Perrot began his career as a cartoon designer at the end of the war, making almost 500 cartoons including numerous commissions from the state, most of which were woven at Aubusson. His style which is particularly rich and decorative is eminently recognisable : a crowd of butterflies or birds, most often, stands out against a background of vegetation, reminiscent of the millefleurs tapestries (which would also inspire Dom Robert). The ornithological subject, the abundance of motifs inspired by medieval « mille-fleurs » tapestries and the plain background (in this case, using the famous ‘Perrot blue’ as it was known in the Pinton workshops, repeatedly used in numerous cartoons) make our tapestry an exemplary model of Perrot's art from the 1960s onwards. Bibliography : Tapisseries, dessins, peintures, gravures de René Perrot, Dessein et Tolra, 1982 Cat. Expo. René Perrot, mon pauvre cœur est un hibou, Aubusson, Cité de la Tapisserie, 2023Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With signed label. Circa 1960.
