Les 6 mots du secret (the 6 words of secrecy)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop.
With signed label, n°1/1.
2001.
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Le lion (the lion)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With label signed by the artist's widow, n°2/6. Circa 1980. -
Oiseau de Midi (bright bird)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. With signed label, n°EA. 1969. -
Le périscope (the periscope)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshop. With signed label, n°1/6. 1971. -
Bouquet papillon (bunch butterfly)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Legoueix workshop. With signed label, n°4/6. Circa 1980.From illustration to tapestry, there's only one (big) step to take - remember that Dom Robert was an illuminator! It was he, and Madeleine David, one of the co-directors of the La Demeure gallery, with whom she was close, that encouraged Jacqueline Duhême to take up the medium: preceded by her reputation as an “imagière” (cf. bibliography), illustrating Prévert, Eluard and Druon, she devoted herself to tapestry from 1967 (when she took classes with Tourlière at the ENAD in Aubusson, and became an enthusiast of numbered cartoons) to 1981, with La Demeure even devoting a solo exhibition to her in 1976. Her world, inspired by medieval mille-fleurs tapestries, is also reminiscent of dom Robert, but a dom Robert on amphetamines, where Nature is abundant, exotic and exuberant (cf. ‘Safari’, ‘l'oiseau de Paradis’). On a smaller, more polished scale, our cartoon bears witness to the colourful vitality of Duhême's inspiration. Bibliography : Cat. Expo. Jacqueline Duhême l’imagière, bibliothèque Forney, 2019 -
Instruments de musique lunaire (instruments for moonlight music)
A painter and engraver, Lucien Coutaud also worked in the theatre with Dullin, Barrault and designed numerous sets and costumes. However it was his encounter with Marie Cuttoli in 1933 which would introduce him to tapestry : she mainly commissioned seat cover designs. Most of the tapestries that followed were woven in the Pinton workshop for the Compagnie des Arts Français, whose main aim was to integrate tapestry as an element of interior decoration. The last 3 tapestries designed by the artist in 1960 are a tribute to his notoriety because “Jardins exotiques” was chosen to decorate the 1st class saloon on the “France” transatlantic liner.Elements of his work as a set designer, influenced by surrealism, are discernible in Coutaud’s woven art : the world he illustrates is figurative yet stylised (shapes are angular and harsh) contained in a dream world often incorporating unusual borders. The cartoon « Instruments de musique lunaire » (Coutaud painted his own cartoons in watercolours without having recourse to numbered cartoons) dates from 1950 : it’s one of the few tapestries designed by this artist (notable also are « Harpe marine » Marine harp and « Violon printanier » Spring violin », as examples of his taste for musical still lives) where the human figure is absent. The centre of the scene (the stage) is occupied by the instruments, while two heads (blowing into musical instruments in the pit) take up the two bottom corners, the whole meanwhile being an austere scene, night time (hence the moonlight) a good representation of the dream-like universe inhabited by this artist’s creations. The municipal theatre in Göteborg possesses a copy of this tapestry. Bibliography : J. Cassou, M. Damain, R. Moutard-Uldry, la tapisserie française et les peintres cartonniers, Tel, 1957, ill. p.86 Exhibition Catalogue Lucien Coutaud, œuvre tissé, Aubusson, Musée Départemental de la Tapisserie, 1988-1989, ill. p.42-43 Exhibition Catalogue Le théâtre en tapisserie, Cavaillès, Lurçat, Matisse, Sorèze, Abbaye-école Musée dom Robert, 2017, ill. n°8Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. 1950. -
Le conscrit des 100 villages (the conscript of the 100 villages)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Tabard workshop. 1947. -
Aube quarte (fourth dawn)
Marc Petit met Jean Lurçat in 1954, went to Aubusson in 1955, exhibited his work for the first time at La Demeure in 1956, became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie) in 1958. After this lightning start to his career, he produced hundreds of cartoons, in a style all his own, where long-legged waders and acrobats wend in and out of dreamscapes. Again, economy of means, with broad flat tints and a narrow chromatic range, for a singular dawn. a theme that the artist is fond of (cf. ‘le pas de l'aube’, but also “Aurore”, ‘la nuit s'éteint’ ....). As for the flock of passing birds, this is another leitmotif, seen in ‘aube courte’ for example.Aubusson tapestry woven in the Picaud workshop. With signed label, n°2/4. Circa 1970. -
Laissez les vivre (let them live)
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Tabard workshop. With signed label, n°6/8. Circa 1970.Henri Ilhe, who came to the design of tapestry cartoons late on in his career, still managed to produce from 1964 onwards a considerable number (more than 120, all woven by the Tabard workshop) in an urbane style, incorporating birds and butterflies sporting in and around the gnarled branches of trees and bushes. “Laissez les livre” is thus, characteristic of Ilhe’s bucolic inspiration. -
Le coquillage étoilé (the starry seashell)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With label signed by the artist. 1959.
