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The open cage
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its border signed by the artist. 1953.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His debut in the field dates back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espoused (limited tones, numbered cartoons,...), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists), and soon a professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The State commissions numerous cartoons from him, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the liner France or the Prefecture of Creuse,.... If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars...), elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds...), man, and texts coexist.... Birds are a recurring motif of the artist in the first half of the 1950s, as well as the flame-shaped motifs punctuated by dots on the periphery of the cage. Moreover, the limited chromatic range is reminiscent of traditional verdures. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 -
Vercors
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its label signed by the artist, No. 2/6. Circa 1965.Maurice André stayed in Aubusson throughout the war. Founder of the cooperative group 'Tapisserie de France', and member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists), he developed a personal aesthetic, far from Lurçat, made up of rigorous cubist flatness, in a often refined chromatic range, and received ambitious public commissions, for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg ('A United Europe in Work and Peace'), or the French Pavilion for the 1958 Exhibition in Brussels ('Modern Technology in the Service of Man'). Naturally (and like Wogensky, Prassinos,…), he then evolved towards abstraction, initially rather lyrical, then in a style that became increasingly geometric, in a trajectory very close to that of Matégot. In the mid-1960s, André's style came closer to Matégot's, where beating, stitching, and stippling were the norm. A declension of greens and triangular shapes serve here as plastic equivalents to the Vercors massif. -
The stump
Fumeron created his first cartoons (he would produce more than 500) from the 1940s onwards, collaborating with the Pinton workshops, then receiving numerous commissions from the State, before participating in the decoration of the 'France' liner. Initially figurative and influenced by Lurçat, he evolved towards abstraction, before returning to a colourful and realistic figuration from the 1980s onwards. Strangely, if the title is naturalistic, the cartoon leans towards abstraction, in a sort of distillation of Fumeron's figurative cartoons, where one can still recognise the characteristic yellow-sun circle of the artist.Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its bolduc. Circa 1960. -
Allegory of the Trades
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Braquenié workshop. 1958.Curious cartoon where, on a star (vaguely hexagonal) are deployed family, traditional occupations (fisherman, farmer,…) in front of gasometers and other cranes, emblems of modernity: a hymn to reconstruction, a political allegory, a work of propaganda,…? -
The watchman
Member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Cartoonists of Tapestry), Wogensky is one of the many artists who will devote themselves to tapestry following Lurçat, in the immediate post-war period. Initially influenced by him, Wogensky's work (159 cartoons according to the 1989 exhibition catalog) subsequently evolves in the 1960s towards a lyrical abstraction not always fully assumed, from cosmic-astronomical themes to decomposed and moving bird forms, towards more refined and less dense cartoons. Although he has always proclaimed himself a painter, the artist's reflection on tapestry is very accomplished: "Creating a mural cartoon... is thinking in terms of a space that no longer belongs to us, by its dimensions, its scale, it is also the requirement of a broad gesture that transforms and accentuates our presence". Symptomatic of the heroic era of the late 1940s, which also saw the blossoming of the budding talents of Tourlière, Lagrange, Matégot,..., all still young, inspired by Lurçat, and trying to distinguish themselves from him, but still remaining figurative, "the watchman" affirms, in a lyrical and colorful style, its proximity to everyday life (note the detail of the striped sweater), at the same time as a strong symbolic connotation: a whistleblower in uncertain times. Bibliography: J. Cassou, M. Damain, R. Moutard-Uldry, French tapestry and cartoonist painters, Tel, 1957, ill. p.131 Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, woven work, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1989, ill. p. 15 Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1989 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, companions on the road and considerable passers-by, Felletin, Church, 1992, ill. p.46Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. With its ribbon. 1948. -
The Starry Meridian
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. circa 1948.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the major figures in the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he adopted (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon became a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissioned numerous cartoons from him, most of which were woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones were for the University of Caen, the Mans Theatre, the France liner, or the Creuse Prefecture,…. While Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, moon, stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. Our cartoon reprises 'Cosmogony' (Bruzeau no. 11), from 1948, in a vertical orientation, without the Goethe quote. The theme of the astrolabe will recur episodically, notably in an eponymous tapestry from 1955. Bibliography: Marthe Belle-Jouffray, Jean Picart le Doux, Filmed Art and History Publications, 1966 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of Sun, Cercle d'art Editions, 1972 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Saint-Denis Museum, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Post Museum, 1980 -
The peacock
Lurçat solicited Saint-Saëns, initially a fresco painter, from 1940 onwards. And, during the war, he produced his first allegorical masterpieces, tapestries of indignation, combat, and resistance: “the Foolish Virgins”, “Theseus and the Minotaur”. At the end of the war, he naturally joined Lurçat, with whom he shared convictions (about the numbered cartoon and counted tones, about the specific writing required by tapestry,…) within the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists). His universe, where the human figure, stretched and elongated, holds a considerable place (compared, in particular, to the place it occupies among his colleagues Lurçat and Picart le Doux), revolves around traditional themes: women, Commedia dell'arte, Greek myths,… sublimated by the brilliance of the colors and the simplification of the layout. He then evolved, in the 1960s, towards more lyrical, almost abstract cartoons, where cosmic elements and forces dominate. The bestiary of Saint-Saëns remains less extensive than that of his peers, Lurçat, Perrot, or Dom Robert, the main illustrator of the peacock. Here, the treatment, as if out of the ground, of a similar motif (although more like a rooster than a peacock), testifies to the variety of solutions among the tapestry cartoonists of the time. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, La Demeure gallery, 1970 Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, woven work, Aubusson, Departmental Tapestry Museum, 1987 Cat. Expo. Marc Saint-Saëns, tapestries, 1935-1979, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1997-1998Tapestry woven by the Baudonnet workshop. With its ribbon. 1959. -
Fire Pheasant
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. With its ribbon signed by the artist. Circa 1960.Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 1930s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He will first tackle technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he will define his system: large stitch, counted tones, numbered drawn cartoons. A gigantic production begins then (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by the desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium around the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras...), stand out against a background without perspective (deliberately remote from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision that is both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the great themes are addressed from the war on: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth...) and whose culminating point will be the " Chant du Monde " (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. This rooster's head in profile appears in different cartoons ("Blue Fires", "The Song of Roland",...): it appears there, with its mandorla, as if in reserve, radiant, against the black background. The title, passing from rooster to pheasant, allows a play on words on "making fire". Bibliography: Tapestries by Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Cat. Expo. The domains of Jean Lurçat, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry, 1986 Colloquium Jean Lurçat and the renaissance of tapestry in Aubusson, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992 Cat. Expo. Dialogues with Lurçat, Museums of Lower Normandy, 1992 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Academy of Fine Arts, 2004 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat at the mere sound of the sun, Paris, Gobelins gallery, 2016 -
Aubusson tapestry woven by Pinton workshop.
Composition
No. 1/6. Circa 1970.Maurice André stayed in Aubusson throughout the war. Founder of the cooperative group 'Tapisserie de France', and member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists), he developed a personal aesthetic, far from Lurçat, characterized by rigorous cubist flatness, often in a purified chromatic range, and received ambitious public commissions, for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg ('A United Europe in Work and Peace'), or the French Pavilion for the 1958 Exhibition in Brussels ('Modern Technology in the Service of Man'). Naturally (and like Wogensky, Prassinos,…), he then evolved towards abstraction, initially rather lyrical, then in a style increasingly geometric, in a trajectory very close to that of Matégot. In André's ultimate style, geometry and its flat areas are tempered by hatching, stripes, and other gradations. -
The harp of the forests
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its label. 1953.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espouses (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the liner France, or the Prefecture of Creuse,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, moon, stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. The harp-tree is a cliché with Picart le Doux (sometimes also found as 'the lyre-tree', Bruzeau no. 44), sensitive to the syncretism of Nature-Music, as well as to the decorative value of multicolored stripes on a green background that smells of humus. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, ill. no. 45 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 -
The morning song
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. No. 5/6. 1965.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espouses (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists), and soon a professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the liner France, or the Prefecture of Creuse,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. Amusing allegory of a harp-cockerel, luminous and joyful: if the title and theme meet Lurçat's concerns, the very decorative character of the cartoon is specific to Picart le Doux. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, ill. n°147 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 -
The Twins
Tapestry woven in the workshops of the Vauboyen mill. Label signed by the artist, n°3/8. 1966.Carzou is one of the many artists woven at Bièvres at the Moulin de Vauboyen (hence the MV mark woven into the weft of the tapestries), transformed from 1959 into a Cultural Centre by Pierre de Tartas, and dedicated to figurative art. Cocteau, Foujita, Erni, Volti, ... and many others who will create numerous monumental works there, as well as in the applied arts (notably book illustration), will pass through there. Although he made a name for himself at the beginning of his career as a painter of large-scale decorations (notably for the stage), Carzou's forays into tapestry are relatively rare. We find in this cartoon the very characteristic style of the artist, made of interwoven lines illustrating oneiric subjects, which are not without evoking the work of Lucien Coutaud. -
The Phoenix
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Hamot workshops. Label signed by the artist, No. EA. 1965.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the major figures in the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he adopted (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists), and soon became a professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The State commissioned numerous cartoons from him, most of which were woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones were for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the liner France, or the Prefecture of Creuse,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, moon, stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. 'The Phoenix' (there is also an identical lithograph), a legendary subject (rare in Picart le Doux's work), features a classic chromatic harmony characteristic of the artist, with yellow motifs on a red background. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, ill. n°162 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 -
Dragon in the night
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its ribbon signed by the artist, No. 1/6. Circa 1965.Matégot, first a decorator, then a creator of objects and furniture (an activity he renounced in 1959), met François Tabard in 1945, and gave him his first cartoons, initially figurative, then soon abstract, from the 1950s onwards. He became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) in 1949, participated in multiple international exhibitions (Matégot, like Lurçat before him, was an indefatigable advocate for tapestry), responded to numerous public commissions, sometimes monumental ("Rouen", 85 m2 for the prefecture of Seine-Maritime, but also tapestries for Orly, for the Maison de la Radio, for the IMF...) and produced no less than 629 cartoons until the 1970s. In 1990, the Matégot Foundation for Contemporary Tapestry was inaugurated in Bethesda, USA. Matégot was part of, along with other artists like Wogensky, Tourlière or Prassinos, those who resolutely oriented wool towards abstraction, initially lyrical, then geometric in the 1970s, exploiting different technical aspects of the craft: gradations, beatings, stitched, dotted... The cartoon expresses the usual contrast between shadows and lights, typical of the cartoons of the time; the title, however, gives it a more illustrative value, like a fantastical fire-breathing animal (and fire itself) that disperses the darkness. Bibliography: Cat. Exp. Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991 Patrick Favardin, Mathieu Matégot, Editions Norma, 2014 -
The tiercelet
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. Label signed by the artist's right-holder, No. E.A.1 1942.Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Elie Maingonnat, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1986-1987, Ill.Elie Maingonnat directed the National School of Decorative Arts in Aubusson from 1930 to 1958, where he succeeded Marius Martin (who already advocated the limitation of colors and the use of hatching), of whom he was a student. In addition to his responsibilities, Maingonnat himself devoted himself to creating cartoons: dense plant motifs animated by a few animals, a testimony to the Limousin flora and fauna, revived the traditional theme of the verdures of the 17th-18th centuries. Our cartoon is typical of Maingonnat's work: the local fauna and flora (here, a small tiercel among the gentians, on the edge of a torrent) are illustrated in a reduced range of green-gray colors that respond to each other, and are highlighted by the browns of the river rocks. -
Rock Flower
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. n°2/4. Circa 1970.Initially a sculptor, using a wide variety of materials (steel, concrete, ceramics,…), Borderie discovered his passion for tapestry in the 1950s, having his first cartoon woven in 1957. Encouraged by Denise Majorel, he received the Grand National Tapestry Prize in 1962. In 1974, he was appointed director of the National School of Decorative Arts in Aubusson, from which he resigned very quickly. He produced nearly 500 painted, abstract cartoons, with simple shapes, degraded in a reduced colour range, with large-stitch weavings. Dynamic abstraction, chromatic range between orange and brown, abstract models playing on the plastic effects of light through colour: a classic cartoon by André Borderie. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. André Borderie “pour l’homme simplement”, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1998 J.J. and B. Wattel, André Borderie and the Aubusson tapestry, Editions Louvre Victoire, 2018, reproduced p.22 -
Awakening
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. No. 4/6. 1969.Bibliography: Simon Chaye contemporary tapestries, Editions Librairie des musées, 2014, ill. p.30It was in 1953 that Jean Picart le Doux offered Chaye to become his assistant and encouraged him to create tapestry cartoons: he then produced numerous bucolic cartoons, but also views of Normandy (Mont Saint Michel, Honfleur, regattas,…), from which he originated. Birds and treillage coexist here in a vein very close to Picart le Doux. -
Ichtyonis
Tapestry woven by the Raymond workshop. With its ribbon signed by the artist, No. EA1. 1980.By training, an engraver (Prix de Rome for engraving in intaglio in 1942), Jean Louis Viard created his first cartoons in the mid-1950s. Initially figurative (he worked with Picart Le Doux at the time), he then followed the natural path of many painter-cartoonists (the same as Matégot, Tourlière or Prassinos,…) by moving towards abstraction. He produced dozens of cartoons until the 2000s, in parallel with his work as a painter and engraver, but showing a particular interest in materials and textures, like the supporters of the 'Nouvelle Tapisserie' (New Tapestry), of which Pierre Daquin, who wove it, was one of the major protagonists. His themes, sometimes metaphysical ('Memories', 'Destins',….) are broad, ranging from the astronomical infinite ('solar darkness'), to the cellular minuscule ('vegetable mutation'): a profuse and varied work in short, regularly exhibited at the Demeure, in various salons or special exhibitions, and more significantly at the Comparaison salon, of which he was the head of the Tapestry section. Provenance: artist's studio -
Still life
Gobelins tapestry woven by G. Bonnevialle. With its ribbon. 1930-1931 (after a painting from 1921).An artist with a classical training and an official career, Migonney spent many years in Algeria, which became his favorite subject. He also provided some cartoons to the National School of Decorative Art in Aubusson (alongside Véra, Valtat,…), whose stand at the International Exposition of Decorative Arts in 1925 included a screen adorned with one of his tapestries. Our tapestry is a detail, woven posthumously, of a spectacular 1921 work (137 x 205 cm) by Migonney, preserved at the Musée de Brou in Bourg en Bresse, "Still Life with Fruit". It shows all the details and nuances of which the weavers of the Gobelins are capable in reproducing a painting, effects against which Lurçat will soon struggle.Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Tapestries 1925, Aubusson, City of Tapestry, 2012 -
Little Harp of the Woods
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With its label signed by the artist's wife, No. 3/6. Circa 1975.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espouses (limited tones, numbered cartoons,...), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones are for the University of Caen, the Theatre of Le Mans, the liner France or the Prefecture of Creuse,.... If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are too, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars...), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds...), man, and texts coexist.... This cartoon reprises 'the harp of the forests' from 1953 (Bruzeau no. 45). The link between music and nature is a leitmotif with Picart le Doux: these tapestries are often enlivened by birds, which stand out against the rectilinear background of the strings. A similar tapestry is preserved at the Lycée d'Aubusson. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux Tapisseries, Musée municipal d'Art et d'Histoire, Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 Cat. Exp. le salon de musique, église du château, Felletin, 2002, ill. p.54 -
The harp of the seas
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its ribbon signed by the artist. 1954.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espouses (limited tones, numbered cartoons,...), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon a professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the liner France or the Prefecture of Creuse,.... If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars...), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds...), man, and texts coexist.... 'The harp of the seas' (Bruzeau no. 60), just like its counterpart, 'the harp of the forests', of the same format, is part of a set of cartoons by Picart le Doux around the themes of the lyre and the harp: the geometric rigour and graphic power of the parallelism of the strings particularly inspired him. Here, Music and nature are intimately linked (cf. 'the lyre-tree' of 1953), and 'Orpheus' (cartoon of 1952) is the singular figure that embodies this assimilation.Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 -
The comedians
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. No. 4/6. 1959.Lurçat approached Saint-Saëns, initially a fresco painter, from 1940 onwards. And, during the war, he produced his first allegorical masterpieces, tapestries of indignation, combat, and resistance: "the Foolish Virgins", "Theseus and the Minotaur". At the end of the war, he naturally joined Lurçat, with whom he shared convictions (on the numbered cartoon and counted tones, on the specific writing required by tapestry, ...) within the A.P.C.T. (Association of Cartoonists-Tapestry Makers). His universe, where the human figure, stretched and elongated, holds a considerable place (compared in particular to the place it occupies among his colleagues Lurçat, or Picart le Doux), revolves around traditional themes: woman, Commedia dell'arte, Greek myths, ... sublimated by the brilliance of the colors and the simplification of the layout. He then evolved, in the 60s, towards more lyrical, almost abstract cartoons, where cosmic elements and forces dominate. The themes of music, theater, and more specifically Comedia dell'Arte ("the Italian Comedy", cartoon of 1947) are omnipresent in Saint-Saëns: he respects the figures, Lelio and Isabelle, with their very particular designs, not devoid of humor, in their traditional costumes. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, La Demeure gallery, 1970 Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, woven work, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1987 Cat. Expo. Marc Saint-Saëns, tapestries, 1935-1979, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1997-1998 -
Windblown
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. With its label. 1962-1963.Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 1930s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He will first tackle technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he will define his system: large stitch, counted tones, numbered drawn cartoons. A gigantic production begins then (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by the desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and the collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium around the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras...), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately remote from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the major themes are addressed from the war: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth...) and whose culminating point will be the " Chant du Monde " (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. Spectacular cartoon (27 m²!) and exceptional private commission intended for a particular location (the hall of a dwelling) from Lurçat's last years, where he brings together a teeming profusion of his usual motifs: sun, stars, butterflies, but also, rarer, turtle, cat... The correspondence between the artist and his client testifies to his availability (at a time when Lurçat, at the height of his glory, is constantly in demand, and when he is devoting himself to the "Chant du Monde"), and the richness of his reflection, argued, in response to the commission: the self-proclaimed "doctor in woolens" recommends the yellow background (and rejects black, "too solemn for a hall inhabited by a very young couple"), "the wall covered from end to end..." royal solution "in the great tradition of tapestry",... We see that the client found nothing to object to in these recommendations. Provenance: Private collection, Lyon (copy of the correspondence between Lurçat, the Tabard workshops, and the client will be given to the purchaser). Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, New Tapestries, Maison de la Pensée Française, 1956 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1976 Cat. Expo. The domains of Jean Lurçat, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1986 Cat. Expo. The man and his lights, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1992 Colloquium Jean Lurçat and the Renaissance of Tapestry in Aubusson, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Simone Lurçat Donation, Academy of Fine Arts, 2004 Jean Lurçat, the Song of the World, Angers, 2007 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 -
Birds' Rendezvous
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its label. 1951.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the major figures in the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he adopted (limited tones, numbered cartoons, ...), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon became a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissioned numerous cartoons from him, most of which were woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones were for the University of Caen, the Theatre of Le Mans, the liner France, or the Prefecture of Creuse, .... If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars ...), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds ...), man, and texts coexist, .... Birds are a recurring motif in the artist's work in the first half of the 1950s, as are the flames punctuated by points on the periphery, a signature of Picart le Doux. Moreover, the limited chromatic range is reminiscent of traditional verdures. This tapestry is reproduced in Bruzeau's work under No. 30. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972 -
The Dolphins
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With its ribbon signed by the artist, No. 6/8. 1959.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espoused (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Theatre of Le Mans, the liner France or the Prefecture of Creuse,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. Reproduced under no. 95 in Bruzeau, he comments 'Perfect symbolization of a theme already addressed'. Indeed, since his beginnings, Picart le Doux has made recurrent use of the marine theme, particularly with 'le Dauphin' in 1951 (Bruzeau no. 27). Our cartoon, with a more stylized motif, testifies to a fairly frequent symmetry in the artist's work, and a very 'seabed' chromatic range.Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of sun, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972 -
Saint Francis speaking to the animals
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Perathon workshop. 1938.Jean Bazaine, like many of his contemporaries, always pursued an intense activity related to mural art, in monumental works. Although he is best known as a designer of stained glass windows or mosaics, he also created tapestry cartoons, starting from the late 1930s. These achievements fall within the framework of a renewal of sacred art, of which Bazaine, especially after the war, was one of the main protagonists. Jean Bazaine directed a painting workshop with Abbot Morel (who would be one of the major players in introducing abstraction into churches) from 1936 to 1937, from which, no doubt, already advanced concerns in the field of sacred art. Our cartoon, figurative (Bazaine abandoned figuration during the war), with traditional iconography, is therefore a modest testimony to the artist's first steps in both mural art and sacred art. -
Pastoral Concert
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Picaud workshop, for the Verrière gallery in Lyon. With its certificate signed by the artist; No. 1/4. Circa 1970.“It will now be understood that after having founded a painting on the love of tapestry, it was relatively easy for me, and very tempting, to build a tapestry that is faithful to my painting” the artist will say in the exhibition catalog of the Galerie Verrière in 1970. It was not until 1961 that he began to create cartoons (more than fifty), both for the high-warp tapestry (in Aubusson, but also at the Mobilier National, sometimes with the collaboration of Pierre Baudouin), but also for the technique of the petit point. We find in these cartoons the very audacious palette of the artist made of primary colors or here, based on a very raw pink, with a narration scattered between the main concert and the hunting scene, in the background. Bibliography: Cat. Expo.Lapicque, Lyon, Galerie Verrière, 1970 -
Butterflies
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton brothers workshop. With a ribbon. Circa 1960.Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 30s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He will first tackle technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he will define his system: large stitch, counted tones, numbered drawn cartoons. A gigantic production then begins (over 1000 cartoons), amplified by his desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium around the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras...), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately remote from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the major themes are addressed from the war onwards: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth...) and of which the culminating point will be the 'Chant du Monde' (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. His trip to Brazil in 1954 was a decisive source of inspiration for Lurçat: the flora and fauna (notably butterflies, a frequent theme) of the Amazon appear recurrently: 'What interests me about the butterfly, ..., is the extraordinary invention that constitutes the interlacing of forms, the sparkling of colors, this gratuitous side of coloring...' (Claude Faux, Lurçat à haute voix, 1962, p.151). Butterflies on a yellow background recur in several cartoons: 'Paon de nuit', 'Copacabana', 'Papillons Marcenac',..Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, New Tapestries, Maison de la Pensée Française, 1956 Cat. Expo. The domains of Jean Lurçat, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1986 Jean Lurçat Colloquium and the Renaissance of Tapestry in Aubusson, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Simone Lurçat Donation, Academy of Fine Arts, 2004 Jean Lurçat, the Song of the World, Angers, 2007 -
The Lyre
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. Circa 1960.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espouses (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven at Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Theatre of Le Mans, the liner France or the Prefecture of Creuse,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where the stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. The motif of the lyre, like that of the harp, is one of the artist's leitmotifs. An Apollonian motif, the lyre appears regularly with the sun (cf. for example 'Sun-lyre', Bruzeau no. 82), but also as a symbol of time (in the image of the 18th-century pendulum balances, one of the artist's cartoons with a lyre motif is called 'the pendulum': sale Lille, 17.6.01 no. 464): 'the Phases of Time' (cf. Armelle Bouchet Mazas, the liner France, Editions Norma, 2006, p.72) that adorn the first-class smoking room of the France. Strangely, our cartoon does not appear in Bruzeau's book: perhaps it is a special commission linked to a scientific or industrial organization, given the shape that appears across the lyre. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972 Armelle Bouchet Mazas, the liner France, Editions Norma, 2006 -
Shadows and Lights
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its label signed by the artist. Circa 1965.Matégot, first a decorator, then a creator of objects and furniture (an activity he renounced in 1959), met François Tabard in 1945, and gave him his first cartoons, initially figurative, then soon abstract, from the 1950s onwards. He became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) in 1949, participated in multiple international exhibitions (Matégot, like Lurçat before him, was an indefatigable advocate of tapestry), responded to numerous public commissions, sometimes monumental ("Rouen", 85 m2 for the prefecture of Seine-Maritime, but also tapestries for Orly, for the Maison de la Radio, for the IMF...) and produced no less than 629 cartoons until the 1970s. In 1990, the Matégot Foundation for contemporary tapestry was inaugurated in Bethesda, USA. Matégot was part of, along with other artists like Wogensky, Tourlière or Prassinos, those who resolutely oriented wool towards abstraction, lyrical at first, geometric in the 1970s, by exploiting different technical aspects of the craft: gradations, beatings, stitched, dotted... This tapestry meets Matégot's concerns about the interplay of shadows and/or light, which he often evokes in his titles (Cf. "Summer Light", Millon-Robert sale, 7.11.90, n°31, reproduced on the cover of the catalogue, "Light Trap" preserved at the Musée Jean Lurçat and de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, and reproduced p.47 of the exhibition catalogue). Here the cartoon is strongly contrasted, like a ray of light between 2 opaque blocks (but with flaws) and black (but with nuances). To tell the truth, Matégot's entire production plays on these transparencies and superimpositions, as if the light (yet fatal to his colors) was striving to pass through the wool. Provenance: Fonds de l'atelier Pinton Bibliography: Cat. Exp. Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991 -
The flame
Portalegre tapestry woven by the Fino workshop. With its signed label by the artist, No. 2/6. Circa 1965.Matégot, first a decorator, then a creator of objects and furniture (an activity he renounced in 1959), met François Tabard in 1945, and gave him his first cartoons, initially figurative, then soon abstract, from the 1950s onwards. He became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) in 1949, participated in multiple international exhibitions (Matégot, like Lurçat before him, was an indefatigable advocate of tapestry), responded to numerous public commissions, sometimes monumental ("Rouen", 85 m2 for the prefecture of Seine-Maritime, but also tapestries for Orly, for the Maison de la Radio, for the IMF...) and produced no less than 629 cartoons until the 1970s. In 1990, the Matégot Foundation for Contemporary Tapestry was inaugurated in Bethesda, USA. Matégot was part of, along with other artists like Wogensky, Tourlière, or Prassinos, those who resolutely oriented wool towards abstraction, initially lyrical, then geometric in the 1970s, exploiting different technical aspects of the craft: gradations, beatings, stitches, stippling... A characteristic abstract cartoon by the artist from the mid-1960s: the evocation of the flame, stylized in an aggressive violet, refers to Matégot's interest in industry, technique, but also in the woven transparencies of which he was the champion. Bibliography: Cat. Exp. Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat and de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991 -
The alarm clock
Tapestry woven by the Baudonnet workshop. With its ribbon signed by the artist. 1959.Lurçat approached Saint-Saëns, initially a fresco painter, from 1940. And, during the war, he produced his first allegorical masterpieces, tapestries of indignation, combat, and resistance: "the Foolish Virgins", "Theseus and the Minotaur". After the war, he naturally joined Lurçat, with whom he shared convictions (on the numbered cartoon and counted tones, on the specific writing required for tapestry, ...) within the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists). His universe, where the human figure, stretched and elongated, holds a considerable place (compared in particular to the place it occupies among his colleagues Lurçat, or Picart le Doux), revolves around traditional themes: women, Commedia dell'arte, Greek myths, ... sublimated by the brilliance of the colors and the simplification of the layout. He then evolved, in the 60s, towards more lyrical, almost abstract cartoons, where cosmic elements and forces dominate. "Saint-Saëns, who executed a series of birds in 1949, rarely represented the rooster, Lurçat's fetish animal. The rooster is here exempt from any symbolism and announces, in a tumult of cries and colors, the birth of the day." (Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, woven work, Aubusson, Departmental Tapestry Museum, 1987 p.48) Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, La Demeure gallery, 1970 Cat. Expo. Saint-Saëns, woven work, Aubusson, Departmental Tapestry Museum, 1987, ill. p.49 Cat. Expo. Marc Saint-Saëns, tapestries, 1935-1979, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1997-1998 -
Battle before Florence
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Goubely-Gatien workshop. With its ribbon partially erased. 1966.Enthusiastic about mural art from 1937 onwards (he participated in the International Exhibition), Lagrange drew his first cartoons in 1945, and became one of the founding members of the A.P.C.T. Initially expressionist (like Matégot or Tourlière), his cartoons (from his collaboration with Pierre Baudouin) evolved towards a stylization that would result in the 1970s in cartoons made up of purified signs in pure tones. Moreover, beyond his role in the revival of tapestry (and related public commissions), Lagrange was a Professor at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, but also a regular collaborator of Jacques Tati, a designer of monumental sets, and finally a recognized painter-artist, close to Estève or Lapicque. In the 1960s, the artist developed on large surfaces the medieval theme of battles and tournaments, in a stylized and geometric vein, whose peak was the "Homage to Paolo Uccello" (280 x 680 cm, of which a copy is kept at the Faculty of Science in Besançon). Still figurative, Lagrange illustrates here, in front of Florence, where one can distinguish the archetypal monuments (the Duomo, the campanile of the Palazzo Vecchio,…), a battle scene in a frieze effectively inspired by Uccello's paintings, where lances, horses and knights intermingle. Note that the beige and brown mottled background on which they stand out is characteristic of Lagrange, and was rarely used by his peers. Bibliography: Cat. Exp. Lagrange tapestries, Galerie La demeure, 1968, n°4 (reproduced) Cat. Exp. Tapisseries d'Aubusson, Galerie d'Art Municipale, Luxembourg, n°4 of the catalogue (not reproduced) Robert Guinot, Jacques Lagrange, les couleurs de la vie, Lucien Souny editeur, 2005, n°40, reproduced (with dimensions 226 x 268 cm) J.J. and B. Wattel, Jacques Lagrange et ses toiles : peintures, tapisseries, cinéma, Editions Louvre Victoire, 2020 -
The sun of Tijuana
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshops after the cartoon by Mathieu Matégot. Signed Bolduc. Circa 1960.Matégot, initially a decorator, then a creator of objects and furniture (an activity he renounced in 1959), met François Tabard in 1945, and gave him his first cartoons, initially figurative, then soon abstract, from the 1950s onwards. He became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Cartoonists for Tapestry) in 1949, participated in numerous international exhibitions (Matégot, like Lurçat before him, was an indefatigable advocate for tapestry), responded to numerous public commissions, sometimes monumental ("Rouen", 85 m2 for the prefecture of Seine-Maritime, but also tapestries for Orly, for the Maison de la Radio, for the IMF...) and produced no less than 629 cartoons until the 1970s. In 1990, the Matégot Foundation for Contemporary Tapestry was inaugurated in Bethesda, USA. Matégot was part of, along with other artists like Wogensky, Tourlière, or Prassinos, those who resolutely oriented wool towards abstraction, initially lyrical, then geometric in the 1970s, exploiting different technical aspects of the craft: gradations, beatings, stitches, pointillism… Matégot, if he was an avant-garde decorator, a recognized creator of furniture and objects, also produced a largely abstract woven work. But it is not a matter of pure abstraction: it is rather the evocation of a place (there will also be "Mindanao", "Santa Barbara",…), of its climate, thanks to the use of all the means permitted by tapestry: transparencies, gradations, beatings,… Provenance: Fonds de l'atelier Pinton Bibliography: Cat. Exp. Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991 -
Square Sun
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its label signed by the artist, No. EX-A. Circa 1965.Matégot, first a decorator, then a creator of objects and furniture (an activity he renounced in 1959), met François Tabard in 1945, and gave him his first cartoons, initially figurative, then soon abstract, from the 1950s onwards. He became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry) in 1949, participated in multiple international exhibitions (Matégot, like Lurçat before him, was an indefatigable advocate for tapestry), responded to numerous public commissions, sometimes monumental ("Rouen", 85 m2 for the prefecture of Seine-Maritime, but also tapestries for Orly, for the Maison de la Radio, for the IMF...) and produced no less than 629 cartoons until the 1970s. In 1990, the Matégot Foundation for Contemporary Tapestry was inaugurated in Bethesda, USA. Matégot was part of, along with other artists like Wogensky, Tourlière, or Prassinos, those who resolutely oriented wool towards abstraction, lyrical at first, geometric in the 1970s, exploiting different technical aspects of the craft: gradients, beatings, stitched, pointillist... "Square Sun" (an oxymoron) also illustrates Matégot's style in the mid-1960s, where shadows and lights clash: from the upper right part of the tapestry, the colors, radiant, disperse, in a concentric manner, the darkness. Bibliography: Cat. Exp. Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat and de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991 Patrick Favardin, Mathieu Matégot, Editions Norma, 2014 -
The Bird Pond
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Goubely workshop. No.II. 1941.Gromaire's woven work is modest: 11 cartoons, designed between 1938 and 1944, most of them in Aubusson itself. "His rigorous constructions, his simplifications, his taste for grand composition and great fundamental ideas, his knowledge as a colorist and to sum it up his supreme quality as a master and craftsman, all of this made him one of the most perfect tapestry makers of his time", Jean Cassou was able to say (Cat. Expo. Marcel Gromaire, Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, 1963). It was Guillaume Janneau, at the head of the Mobilier National, who called upon him in 1938, convinced that his style (simplification of forms, geometric design outlined in black, influence of Cubism, limited palette...) would advantageously address the new aesthetic problems that tapestry must solve to be reborn (simplified color ranges, synthetic cartoons,...): first with a commission on the theme of the four elements, followed by another ("the Seasons"), intended to be executed in Aubusson. Gromaire, in 1940, joined Lurçat and Dubreuil there. Working alone, meticulously (many drawings are preparatory to the cartoon, painted, and not numbered as with Lurçat), in close collaboration with Suzanne Goubely, who wove all his cartoons, he spent 4 years in Aubusson, devoting all his creative energies to tapestry. At the end of the war, he left Creuse, and would no longer produce cartoons, leaving Lurçat the place of great initiator of the renewal of tapestry. "The bird pond" is symptomatic of Gromaire's woven aesthetic, by its extremely decorative and quasi-oneiric character (far from his graphic works), by the choice of subject, both animal and vegetal (and even architectural), and very strongly inspired by Creuse. What strikes one most is the extraordinary density, the abundance, the profusion,... that make Gromaire's woven work so inimitable. This tapestry was featured in the exhibition "French Tapestry from the Middle Ages to the present day" which took place at the Musée d'Art Moderne in 1946. Bibliography: Le Point, Aubusson and the renaissance of tapestry, March 1946, reproduced p.34 Muraille et laine, éditions pierre Tisné, 1946, ill. n°51 André Lejard (dir.), French Tapestry, Paul Elek publishers, 1946, reproduced p.103 Cat Expo., Aubusson Tapestries, Luxembourg, Municipal Art Gallery, 1982, n°3 Cat. Expo., Gromaire, woven work, Aubusson, Musée de la tapisserie, 1995, reproduced p.51 Cat. Expo. The Gobelins manufactory in the first half of the 20th century, Beauvais, Galerie nationale de la tapisserie, 1999 -
The wheel
Aubusson tapestry woven by Pinton. With its label. Circa 1970.Perrot began his work as a cartoonist at the end of the war, producing nearly 500 cartoons, with many commissions from the State, most of which were woven in Aubusson. His highly decorative and shimmering style is very characteristic: a profusion of butterflies or birds, most often, stands out against a vegetal background, in the taste of mille-fleurs tapestries (which Dom Robert also drew inspiration from). Khaki background, inspiration from medieval mille-fleurs, swarming birds, all the elements specific to Perrot's cartoons are gathered here.Bibliography: Tapestry, drawings, paintings, engravings by René Perrot, Dessein et Tolra, 1982 -
Nymphs and Hunters
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop for the Compagnie des Arts Français. 1941.André Planson's place in the history of tapestry is linked to the role that Jacques Adnet wanted to give it within the framework of the synthesis of the arts promoted within the Compagnie des Arts Français, of which he was director. From 1941, Adnet solicited several painters (Brianchon, Vera,…. and Planson) to create tapestry cartoons, in connection with furniture and interior architecture: “we wanted to demonstrate that contemporary tapestry finds its place in a whole and can effectively help the atmosphere of a room” (L. Chéronnet, Jacques Adnet, Art et Industrie, 1948). The Compagnie des Arts Français organized throughout the 1940s tapestry exhibitions in its premises. These decorative aspirations, important for the renewal of Tapestry, remain however far from the concerns of Lurçat and his followers. The pleasant and joyful style (one thinks of the contemporary achievements of Lurçat or Gromaire) of the Compagnie appears fully in this 1941 cartoon, which updates the traditional themes of tapestry, halfway between hunting scene and rustic pleasures, in a desire to renew the great decorative taste. While some technical innovations of the Lurçat school are already assimilated (counted tones, thick stitch,…), it is noted that this decorative will is still influenced by pictorial technique (use of perspective, shading in the flesh,…) -
Camargue
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshops. Label signed by the artist, n°4/6. 1963.Attracted by large surfaces, under the influence of Untersteller at the School of Fine Arts, Hilaire executed numerous murals. Logically, he produced, from 1949, at the same time as many artists, stimulated by Lurçat (he will be part of the A.P.C.T., Association of Cartoonists of Tapestry, alongside him), numerous cartoons (a few dozen), some of which were woven in Beauvais or at the Gobelins. We find his figurative, cubist style (which sometimes borders on abstraction) in his tapestry cartoons: in ours, but also for example in the one produced for the Fontainebleau Salon of the Paquebot France, 'Sous-bois' (190 x 988 cm, Pinton weaving, reproduced in Armelle Bouchet Mazas, the paquebot France, Paris, 2006, p.169), where shapes and colors are fragmented in a kaleidoscopic way. 'Camargue' is reproduced in the 'Tapisserie d'Aubusson' binder published by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Guéret in the early 80s to illustrate the know-how of the Aubusson workshops.Bibliography: Cat. Expo., Hilaire, woven work, Verrière gallery, 1970 (reproduced) Cat. Expo. Hilaire, from line to light, Georges de la Tour Departmental Museum in Vic-sur-Seille, 2010. -
Argos
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With its label signed by the artist, no. 1/4. 1971.Loewer created his first cartoon in 1953; his works are initially figurative before he moves (like Matégot) towards abstraction, exclusively geometric in Loewer's case. He will compose more than 180 cartoons, most of which were woven by his friend Raymond Picaud. Around 1971-1972, Loewer's style becomes more refined, with fewer squares, and more vivid and varied colors. As is often the case with Loewer, our weaving is unique. Bibliography: Claude Loewer, l'évasion calculée: works from 1939 to 1993, catalogue raisonné of tapestries from 1953 to 1974, Sylvio Acatos, Charlotte Hug, Walter Tschopp and Marc-Olivier Wahler, Artcatos, 1994, no. 128 -
Galatea
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With its ribbon signed by the artist, no. 1/4. 1970.Loewer created his first cartoon in 1953; his creations were initially figurative before he moved (like Matégot) towards abstraction, exclusively geometric with Loewer. He composed more than 180 cartoons, most of which were woven by his friend Raymond Picaud. Woven in a single copy according to the catalogue raisonné, "Galathée" is representative of the artist's style around 1970, whose recurring plastic sign becomes the square, used in superimpositions. Bibliography: Claude Loewer, l'évasion calculée: works from 1939 to 1993, catalogue raisonné of tapestries from 1953 to 1974, Sylvio Acatos, Charlotte Hug, Walter Tschopp and Marc-Olivier Wahler, Artcatos, 1994, n°120 -
Fish and frogs
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With its signed label, no. 1/4. Circa 1970.Elie Grekoff, close to Lurçat's aesthetic, produced more than 300 cartoons: black background, submarine, with fish and foliage, distinguished from Lurçat by the curious and amusing presence of frogs. -
Composition
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its label, no. 1/1. 1974.Jean Bazaine, comme nombre de ses contemporains, a toujours poursuivi une intense activité liée à l’art mural, dans des travaux à destination monumentale. S’il est surtout connu comme concepteur de vitraux ou de mosaïques, il a également réalisé des cartoons de tapisserie, et ce, dès la fin des années 30. Ces réalisations rentrent dans le cadre d’un renouveau de l’art sacré dont Bazaine, surtout après la guerre, sera l’un des principaux protagonistes. Néanmoins, les créations de Bazaine ne sont pas destinées qu’à des édifices religieux. Sa maîtrise de l’art mural s’est exprimée dans des commandes de mosaïques, pour le bâtiment de l’UNESCO ou la Maison de la Radio, mais aussi de tapisseries, tissées dans les Manufactures Nationales, ou à Aubusson, pour le Palais de Justice de Lille, ou l’Hôtel de Ville de Strasbourg. C’est dans ce contexte que s’inscrit la commande de la Fédération Française du Bâtiment, pour son siège, au début des années 70 à un artiste reconnu, presque officiel (Grand Prix National des Arts en 64, exposition au Musée National d’Art Moderne en 1965), qui y répondra par notre vaste composition rythmique et lyrique, chromatiquement homogène : malheureusement, le label, effacé, nous prive du titre de l’œuvre, chez un artiste qui ne se voulait pas abstrait. Provenance : Siège de la Fédération Française du Bâtiment -
Music and Shell
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. With its label. Circa 1950.Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 30s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He will first tackle technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he will define his system: large stitch, counted tones, numbered drawings. A gigantic production then begins (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by the desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists) and collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium around the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras...), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately removed from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision that is both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the major themes are addressed from the war on: freedom, resistance, brotherhood, truth...) and of which the culminating point will be the "Song of the World" (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. This model (of which a copy is kept at the Cité de la Tapisserie, in Aubusson) is exemplary of the theme of the laid table, a cliché with Lurçat. The association of musical instrument-shellfish also refers to the work of Picart le doux. Bibliography: Tapestries by Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1976 Cat. Expo. The domains of Jean Lurçat, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry, 1986 Colloquium Jean Lurçat and the renaissance of tapestry in Aubusson, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992 Cat. Expo. Dialogues with Lurçat, Musées de Basse-Normandie, 1992 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Donation Simone Lurçat, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2004 R. Guinot, the tapestry of Aubusson and Felletin, Lucien Souny, 2009, ill. p.96 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat in the sole sound of the sun, Paris, Galerie des Gobelins, 2016 -
The Basset
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. With its label. Circa 1950.Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 30s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He will first tackle technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he will define his system: large stitch, counted tones, numbered drawn cartoons. A gigantic production then begins (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by the desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and the collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium across the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras...), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately remote from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the great themes are addressed from the war on: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth...) and whose culminating point will be the " Chant du Monde " (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. Dog lover, Lurçat had Afghan hounds. If they are found episodically in his cartoons, Lurçat fails to abstract from their aspect: his "basset" (close to another cartoon entitled "the green dog", without the owl) has only the name. Bibliography: Tapestries by Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, 1976 Cat. Expo. The domains of Jean Lurçat, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry, 1986 Colloquium Jean Lurçat and the renaissance of tapestry in Aubusson, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992 Cat. Expo. Dialogues with Lurçat, Museums of Lower Normandy, 1992 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Simone Lurçat Donation, Academy of Fine Arts, 2004 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat to the mere sound of the sun, Paris, Gobelins gallery, 2016 -
Concert of birds
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With its label signed by the artist, No. 4/6. Circa 1975.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espouses (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Theatre of Le Mans, the liner France or the Prefecture of Creuse,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and his themes are also, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist,…. The theme of music is frequently associated with birds in Picart le Doux's work; this cartoon is a late variation of 'the harp of the forests' from 1953. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 -
Snow Stars
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. No. 7/8. 1962.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espouses (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon a professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the liner France or the Prefecture of Creuse,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, moon, stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. The treatment of winter in Picart le Doux's work is characterized by chromatic stencils (muted tones, brown, black, white) and motifs (bare branches, circle-flakes); the eponymous snow stars will be reused in 'Solstice d'hiver' or 'Hommage à Vivaldi'. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, ill. n°122 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 -
Oh Sun
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Hamot workshop. With its label signed by the artist, No. 2/8. 1968.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espouses (limited tones, numbered cartoons, ...), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Theatre of Le Mans, the liner France or the Prefecture of Creuse, .... If the conceptions of Picart le Doux are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration, his themes, are also, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where the stars (the sun, the moon, the stars ...), the elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds ...), man, texts, ... coexist. 'The integration of a text is first a means of communicating more fully with the poet' said Picart le Doux (by a process that Lurçat will also use), who will draw inspiration from Apollinaire thus ('la jolie rousse') but also from Whitman, Eluard, Saint-John Perse, ... To the love poem, illustrated by an ardent heart and, literally, by a sun, he associates a zodiac, one of his recurring motifs. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, ill. n°161 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 -
Sphere and doves
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its label signed by the artist. circa 1954.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espouses (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Theatre of Le Mans, the liner France or the Prefecture of Creuse,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where the stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist,… Typical association of Picart le Doux, where Nature (arranged in a French garden) populated with doves coexists with a triple allegory of letters (the book), arts (the mandolin), and sciences (the sphere): the incarnation of a classical art of living. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 -
The trawl
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its signed label. 1952.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espouses (limited tones, numbered cartoons, ...), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Theatre of Le Mans, the liner France or the Prefecture of Creuse, .... If the conceptions of Picart le Doux are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration, his themes, are also, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where the stars (the sun, the moon, the stars ...), the elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds ...), man, texts, .... "One of the most famous tapestries of Picart le Doux: the organization is very tight and the ample curves of the net underline the party of a broad and simple writing." : thus expresses Maurice Bruzeau in the notice he devotes to this tapestry (n°37 of his work). "Le Chalut" joins the omnipresent marine themes of the artist, particularly in those years: "Dieu Marin", "La Sirène" "le Dauphin", "Fruits de mer", "Etoiles de mer", in a range of muted colors based on khaki and silver gray. Here, the treatment is more documentary (except for the presence of the trident): it is fishing, as seen by Picart le Doux. Bibliography: Léon Moussinac, Jean Picart le Doux, Editions Cercle d'art, 1964 (reproduced Pl. 10) Marthe Belle-Jouffray, Jean Picart le Doux, Film Publications of Art and History, 1966, reproduced n°4 Cat. Exp., Hommage à Jean Picart le Doux, Artistic and Literary Center of Rochechouart, 1968 (reproduced) Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs du soleil, Editions Cercle d'art 1972 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Paris, Museum of the Post, 1980 (reproduced) Cat. Exp. Picart le Doux, Château d'Olonne, 1992, reproduced -
Autumn-Winter
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its border, No. 6/6. Circa 1975.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the major figures in the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he adopted (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon became a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissioned numerous cartoons from him, most of which were woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones were for the University of Caen, the Mans Theatre, the liner France, or the Creuse Prefecture,…. While Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, moon, stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist…. The theme of the seasons is a commonplace in the history of tapestry, which the cartoonists of the 20th century, led by Lurçat, sought to revive (cf. his Seasons tapestry commissioned by the State as early as 1939). At Picart le Doux, inspiration is twofold: Nature, of course, but also Music; 'Winter', treated allegorically, is one of the artist's most famous cartoons, dating back to 1950, but it is the 'Homage to Vivaldi' of 1963, with its four seasons represented symbolically by colored suns, inlaid with zodiac signs, and sources of vegetation, that our cartoon reprises, transposing its motifs horizontally. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972 -
The Lute and the Doves
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its label signed by the artist, No. 6/8. Circa 1955.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espouses (limited tones, numbered cartoons,...), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists), and soon a professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the liner France or the Prefecture of Creuse,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars...), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds...), man, and texts coexist…. 'The lute and the doves' reprises a denser and larger cartoon from 1949, 'the birds take flight', intended to symbolize Liberation, a theme found in 'the open cage' of 1953. Bibliography: Marthe Belle-Jouffray, Jean Picart le Doux, Filmated Art and History Publications, 1966, reproduced no. 3 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of Sun, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 -
Man and the Earth
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Hamot workshop. 1962.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espouses (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), and soon a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Theatre of Le Mans, the liner France or the Prefecture of Creuse,…. If the conceptions of Picart le Doux are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration, his themes, are also, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where the stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, texts,… coexist. Around the 1960s, Picart le Doux designs a series of large cartoons ('Time', 'Galaxy', 'Man and the Sea',…), spectacular allegories centered around Man, at the heart of Creation. In our synthetic 'Man and the Earth', the vocabulary of vine shoots, wheat ears, human body irrigated by veins,… takes up other earlier cartoons by the artist. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of Sun, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, ill. n°132 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Museum of Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Museum of the Post, 1980 -
Fates
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Glaudin-Brivet workshop. With its label signed by the artist, No. 1/6. 1974.By training, an engraver (Prix de Rome for engraving in intaglio in 1942), Jean Louis Viard created his first cartoons in the mid-1950s. Initially figurative (he worked with Picart Le Doux at the time), he then followed the natural path of many painter-cartoonists (the same as Matégot, Tourlière or Prassinos,…) by moving towards abstraction. He produced dozens of cartoons until the 2000s, in parallel with his work as a painter and engraver, but showing a particular interest in materials and textures, like the supporters of the 'Nouvelle Tapisserie' (New Tapestry), of which Pierre Daquin, who wove it, was one of the major protagonists. His themes, sometimes metaphysical ('Memories', 'Destins',….) are broad, ranging from the astronomical infinite ('solar darkness'), to the cellular minuscule ('vegetable mutation'): a profuse and varied work in short, regularly exhibited at the Demeure, in various salons or special exhibitions, and more significantly at the Comparaison salon, of which he was the head of the Tapestry section. Provenance: artist's studio -
Extinguished Suns
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its label signed by the artist, No. 1/6. 1967.By training, an engraver (Prix de Rome for engraving in intaglio in 1942), Jean Louis Viard created his first cartoons in the mid-1950s. Initially figurative (he worked with Picart Le Doux at the time), he then followed the natural path of many painter-cartoonists (the same as Matégot, Tourlière or Prassinos,…) by moving towards abstraction. He produced dozens of cartoons until the 2000s, in parallel with his work as a painter and engraver, but showing a particular interest in materials and textures, like the supporters of the 'Nouvelle Tapisserie' (New Tapestry), of which Pierre Daquin, who wove it, was one of the major protagonists. His themes, sometimes metaphysical ('Memories', 'Destins',….) are broad, ranging from the astronomical infinite ('solar darkness'), to the cellular minuscule ('vegetable mutation'): a profuse and varied work in short, regularly exhibited at the Demeure, in various salons or special exhibitions, and more significantly at the Comparaison salon, of which he was the head of the Tapestry section. Provenance: artist's studio -
Normans on the Seine
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshops. With its ribbon signed by the artist, No. 1. 1961.Lars Gynning is one of the many artists of all nationalities who were woven in Aubusson in the 1950s-70s, when tapestry was an essential artistic medium. From a thematic point of view, our cartoon allows the intersection, across the centuries, of Franco-Scandinavian relations through the prism of Viking incursions up the Seine: obviously, the Bayeux tapestry comes to mind. But rather than a historico-diplomatic testimony from Gynning, cartoon actually illustrates a song by Evart Taube, the national Swedish poet-bard of the 20th century (whose text appears at the bottom of the composition); apart from the subject stricto sensu, the woven translation of an epic song refers to the great medieval tradition of tapestry, an unsurpassable model for many cartoonists of the time. The aesthetic, resolutely modern and influenced by Cubism, revives the ancient subject. -
Envy and Gluttony (the capital sins)
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. With its ribbon signed by the artist. 1956.After the usual passage through wall decoration in the 1930s, Jullien came to Aubusson in 1936, became associated with Picart le Doux in 1947 and became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Cartoonists for Tapestry). He then devoted himself to tapestry with zeal and produced 167 cartoons, initially figurative, following Picart le Doux and Saint-Saëns, then under the influence of the scientific themes addressed, he evolved towards abstraction. In 1981, two years before his death, he donated his studio to the Departmental Museum of Tapestry in Aubusson. "He treats…. a short, very savory series of vices that denotes a mischievous humor and renews in a very personal way these themes so frequently used in the Middle Ages." (Cat. Expo. Tribute to Louis-Marie Jullien, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1983, p.4). Here, the subject is a pretext for representations of animals as found in his contemporaries, notably Picart le Doux, to whom the artist was close. According to the catalog of the 1983 exhibition (which serves as a Catalog Raisonné, and where our work bears the number 53), only one tapestry was woven from this cartoon: it is a unique piece. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Tribute to Louis-Marie Jullien, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1983 -
Eddies
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Tabard workshop. Circa 1960.Matégot, first a decorator, then a creator of objects and furniture (an activity he renounced in 1959), met François Tabard in 1945, and gave him his first cartoons, initially figurative, then soon abstract, from the 1950s onwards. He became a member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry) in 1949, participated in numerous international exhibitions (Matégot, like Lurçat before him, was an indefatigable advocate for tapestry), responded to numerous public commissions, sometimes monumental ("Rouen", 85 m2 for the prefecture of Seine-Maritime, but also tapestries for Orly, for the Maison de la Radio, for the IMF...) and produced no less than 629 cartoons until the 1970s. In 1990, the Matégot Foundation for Contemporary Tapestry was inaugurated in Bethesda, USA. Matégot was part of, along with other artists like Wogensky, Tourlière or Prassinos, those who resolutely oriented wool towards abstraction, lyrical at first, geometric in the 1970s, exploiting different technical aspects of the craft: gradients, beatings, stitched, pointillist… Remous is a testament to Matégot's work around 1960: lyricism, play on transparencies, call to technical virtuosity of the weavers (passages of tones, gradients, ...). Its evocative title also recalls the artist's interest in aquatic subjects (cf. his "Regattas") treated in an abstract-metaphorical way. Bibliography: Cat. Exp. Les tapisseries de Mathieu Matégot, Galerie La Demeure, 1962 (our tapestry is reproduced there) Cat. Exp. Matégot, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, 1990-1991 -
Cambodian Dancers
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With its label from the Verrière gallery, No. 1/4. Circa 1965.Little known today, Maurice Ferréol's contribution to figurative tapestry in the 1960s is quite remarkable. He imposed himself as a kind of popular image-maker, where the use of pure colors allows the drawing to be exacerbated, like childish figures. What do they have to do with Cambodia, these colorful, masked figures, with extravagant costumes? They are only a pretext for a profusion of colors and motifs, in Ferréol's very particular style. -
Carnival Butterflies
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop. With its label signed by the artist. Circa 1970.Michèle van Hout le Beau produced numerous cartoons in the 1960s-70s, working with many workshops in Aubusson, and obtaining public commissions (she participated, with others, Soulages, Lagrange, Alechinsky,…, in the decoration of Air France's transatlantic Boeing 707s). Her writing is often articulated around strident colours (very 1970s), on which foliage, characters or stylized animals develop. Our cartoon, with its acid hues, is also very characteristic of the artist's style; we can also observe, on a theme extensively developed by Lurçat, the difference in treatment of butterflies: the subject is a pretext for coloured geometric evocations close to abstraction. -
Fish of the Moon
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its ribbon. Circa 1970.Fumeron produced his first cartoons (he produced more than 500) from the 1940s onwards, collaborating with the Pinton workshops, then receiving numerous commissions from the State, before participating in the decoration of the liner 'France'. Initially figurative and influenced by Lurçat, he evolved towards abstraction, before returning to a colourful and realistic figuration from the 1980s onwards. Under the reddish moon, fish, butterflies and lobster frolic in a dreamlike composition typical of the artist: many of these motifs can be found in 'Before Man', woven by the Gobelins (see Cat. Expo. 'Le Mobilier National et les Manufactures Nationales des Gobelins et de Beauvais sous la IVe République', Beauvais, 1997) -
Tribute to Abbot Breuil
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its label. Circa 1955.Perrot began his work as a cartoonist at the end of the war, producing nearly 500 cartoons, with many commissions from the State, most of which were woven in Aubusson. His highly decorative and shimmering style is very characteristic: a profusion of butterflies or birds, most often, stands out against a vegetal background, in the taste of mille-fleurs tapestries (which Dom Robert also drew inspiration from). An astonishing cartoon inspired by the paintings in the Lascaux cave, where tapestry has never more deserved its name of parietal art; Perrot's contribution is ultimately quite modest: saturation of colors (notably of the background, between mauve and pink), densification of motifs (more scattered in the cave), spread speckles,…If Perrot multiplied cartoon homages (to Pergaud, to Redouté, to Audubon,…), this one is especially noteworthy for the proven proximity of the artist and the dedicatee, "the pope of Prehistory": the homage does not rely solely on the artificiality of a public commission. Bibliography: Tapestry, drawings, paintings, engravings by René Perrot, Dessein et Tolra, 1982. -
The enclosure
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Brivet workshop. With its label signed by the artist, No. 4/4. 1966.Bibliography: Simon Chaye contemporary tapestries, Editions Librairie des musées, 2014, ill. p.27It was in 1953 that Jean Picart le Doux offered Chaye to become his assistant and encouraged him to create tapestry cartoons: he then produced many bucolic cartoons, but also views of Normandy (Mont Saint Michel, Honfleur, regattas,…), from which he originated. Classic Cartoon of the artist's naturalistic vein, specializing in enclosures, hedges and other undergrowth. -
Vega
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. Label signed by the artist, No. 2/4. 1967.Member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Cartoonists for Tapestry), Wogensky is one of many artists who devoted themselves to tapestry following Lurçat, in the immediate post-war period. Initially influenced by him, Wogensky's work (159 cartoons according to the 1989 exhibition catalog) later evolved in the 1960s towards a lyrical abstraction that was not always fully assumed, from cosmic-astronomical themes to decomposed and moving bird forms, towards more refined and less dense cartoons. Although he always proclaimed himself a painter, the artist's reflection on tapestry is very accomplished: "Creating a mural cartoon... is thinking in terms of a space that no longer belongs to us, by its dimensions, its scale, it is also the requirement of a broad gesture that transforms and accentuates our presence". "Vega" belongs to Wogensky's "cosmic" vein (its title itself is evidence of this), which runs throughout the 1960s, and of which "Cosmos" (1968, University of Strasbourg), and "Galaxie" (1970, Senate, Luxembourg Palace) will be the highlights. Patterned (ubiquitous) and flat areas coexist in nuanced color harmonies, in a curious, unknown world, as close to very small cells seen under a microscope as to the infinitely large. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, l'oeuvre tissé, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1989 Cat. Expo. Robert Wogensky, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1989 -
Rambouillet
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop With its label signed by the artist, No. 1/6. Circa 1970. Perrot began his work as a cartoonnier after the war, producing nearly 500 cartoons, with many commissions from the State, most of which were woven in Aubusson. His style is highly decorative and shimmering, very characteristic: a profusion of butterflies or birds, most often, stands out against a vegetal background, in the taste of mille-fleurs tapestries (which Dom Robert also drew inspiration from). René Perrot is essentially an animalier artist, who usually stylizes. His decorative vein is counterbalanced here by the extremely realistic treatment of the deer, unusual in post-war tapestry. The title of the cartoon refers to the great French hunts that he abundantly illustrated, for example in "Sologne", deposited at the Gien Hunting Museum by the Mobilier National. -
The birds fly away
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its ribbon. 1949. Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the tapestry revival. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the 'Marseillaise' liner. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espoused (limited tones, numbered cartoons,...), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists), and soon a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons from him, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones are for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the France liner, or the Creuse Prefecture,.... While Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, moon, stars...), elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds...), man, and texts coexist.... 'The birds take flight' is meant to symbolize Liberation, a theme also found in 'The Open Cage' from 1953. Bibliography: Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, no. 13 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980 -
Cosmic Vision
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton Frères workshops. Label. Circa 1970.Holger was a student at the National School of Decorative Arts in Aubusson, and worked with Lurçat before his death in 1966. He created many oneiric cartoons woven in Aubusson. Based in the United States, he remains a tireless advocate and witness to modern tapestry, organizing exhibitions and conferences on the subject. -
White tablecloth
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Goubely workshop. Circa 1955.Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917 onwards, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 30s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He will first tackle technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he will define his system: large stitch, counted tones, numbered drawn cartoons. A gigantic production then begins (more than 1000 cartoons), amplified by the desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and the collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium around the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras...), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately far from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision that is both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (the great themes are addressed from the war onwards: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth...) and of which the culminating point will be the "Song of the World" (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. The theme of the set table is a leitmotif with Lurçat, from the 1940s onwards (cf. Les quatre coins, 1943, Goubely-Gatien Workshop, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry). These tables, sometimes very "horns of abundance", and often accompanied by musical instruments (generally mandolin) recall the still life paintings of the 17th century, a theme foreign to the tapestry of the time. Bibliography: Tapestries by Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, 1976 Cat. Expo. The domains of Jean Lurçat, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry, 1986 Colloquium Jean Lurçat and the renaissance of tapestry in Aubusson, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992 Cat. Expo. Dialogues with Lurçat, Museums of Lower Normandy, 1992 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Simone Lurçat Donation, Academy of Fine Arts, 2004 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat at the mere sound of the sun, Paris, Gobelins gallery, 2016 -
Copper
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its ribbon signed by the artist. Circa 1950.Lurçat's work is immense: however, it is his role in the renovation of the art of tapestry that earned him a place in posterity. From 1917, he began with canvas works, then, in the 1920s and 1930s, he worked with Marie Cuttoli. His first collaboration with the Gobelins dates back to 1937, when he simultaneously discovered the Apocalypse tapestry of Angers, which definitively encouraged him to devote himself to tapestry. He first tackled technical questions with François Tabard, then, on the occasion of his installation in Aubusson during the war, he defined his system: large stitch, counted tones, numbered drawn cartoons. A gigantic production then began (over 1000 cartoons), amplified by his desire to involve his painter friends, the creation of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Painter-Cartoonists of Tapestry) and collaboration with the La Demeure gallery and Denise Majorel, then by his role as tireless propagator of the medium around the World. His woven work testifies to a specifically decorative art of imagery, in a very personal symbolic iconography, cosmogonic (sun, planets, zodiac, 4 elements...), stylized vegetal, animal (goats, roosters, butterflies, chimeras...), standing out against a background without perspective (deliberately remote from painting), and intended, in his most ambitious cartoons, to share a vision that is both poetic (he sometimes sprinkles these tapestries with quotations) and philosophical (major themes are addressed from the war on: freedom, resistance, fraternity, truth...) and whose culminating point will be the "Chant du Monde" (Jean Lurçat Museum, former Saint-Jean hospital, Angers), unfinished at his death. Cuivré is the name given to certain butterflies whose reflections recall metal. This cartoon reprises "sphinx and rooster" (without the rooster), in a beautiful positive/negative contrast, in yellow on a black background.Bibliography: Tapestries by Jean Lurçat 1939-1957, Pierre Vorms Editeur, 1957 Cat. Expo. Lurçat, 10 years later, Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, 1976 Cat. Expo. The domains of Jean Lurçat, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry, 1986 Colloquium Jean Lurçat and the renaissance of tapestry in Aubusson, Aubusson, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, 1992 Cat. Expo. Dialogues with Lurçat, Museums of Lower Normandy, 1992 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat, Simone Lurçat Donation, Academy of Fine Arts, 2004 Gérard Denizeau, Jean Lurçat, Liénart, 2013 Cat. Expo. Jean Lurçat at the mere sound of the sun, Paris, Gobelins gallery, 2016 -
Tribute to Mozart
Bibliography: Marthe Belle-Jouffray, Jean Picart le Doux, Film publications of art and history, 1966, reproduced n°5 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of sun, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, ill. n°59 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980Aubusson tapestry woven by Hamot workshop. No. EA. 1955.Jean Picart le Doux is one of the major figures in the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he adopted (limited tones, numbered cartoons,...), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T (Association of Cartoonists-Tapestry Makers), and soon became a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissioned numerous cartoons from him, most of which were woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones were for the University of Caen, the Mans Theatre, the France liner, or the Creuse Prefecture,.... While Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars...), elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds...), man, and texts coexist.... Cartoons dedicated to music are very numerous in Picart le Doux's work: genres, works ('A Little Night Music', another title of the work, 'The 4 Seasons', for example), composers ('Homage to Vivaldi', 'Homage to Bach' which was featured on a stamp in 1980), instruments ('Sun-Lyre', 'Harp of the Seas'), mythological figures ('Orpheus'). Most often, these motifs are integrated into a bucolic nature dotted with birds and butterflies in a decorative vein characteristic of the artist. -
Genetic couple
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop. With its ribbon. Circa 1970.Here, in this apparently unique cartoon, we find the surety of line and the purity of drawing of Trémois (known mainly as an engrever and illustrator, although Grand Prix de Rome de Peinture), and his taste for the treatment of the human body: amorous embraces and meditations on modern science are associated in an unusual shorthand typical of the artist. -
Living Waters
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Legoueix workshop. With its label signed by the artist, No. 1/6. Circa 1970.First a sculptor, using the most diverse materials (steel, concrete, ceramics,…), Borderie discovered a passion for tapestry in the 50s, having his first cartoon woven in 1957. Encouraged by Denise Majorel, he received the National Grand Prize for Tapestry in 1962. In 1974, he was appointed director of the National School of Decorative Arts of Aubusson, from which he resigned very quickly. He produced nearly 500 painted, abstract cartoons, with simple shapes, degraded in a reduced color range, with large-stitch weavings. Despite its warm colors and lyrical shapes (notably this vertical brace, like aquatic swirls), "Eaux vives" remains unique in Borderie's work: the usual chromatic homogeneity is altered by this striking central red oval. Bibliography: Cat. Expo. André Borderie “pour l'homme simplement”, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry, 1998 J.J. and B. Wattel, André Borderie and the Aubusson tapestry, Editions Louvre Victoire, 2018
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