after Raoul DUFY

Dufy has always demonstrated a genuine vocation for decorative arts and artisanal techniques. We are precisely here, with « l’oiseau bleu », at the conjunction of his interests for l’illustration of books and for textile arts. Indeed, as early as 1910, Dufy designs the engraved woods intended to illustrate « le Bestiaire » d’Apollinaire; then, under l’égide of Paul Poiret, he creates decorative motifs intended for l’impression of fabrics, before collaborating with the Lyon silk house Bianchini-Férier. Subsequently, there were orders destined for the Beauvais manufactory (l’ensemble mobilier « Paris »), for Marie Cuttoli, the cartoons woven at Aubusson during the war (« le bel été »), the collaboration with the Louis Carré gallery thereafter: a role, if not eminent, in the Renaissance of Tapestry, in any case, a prolonged effort in the medium. In the 1960s still, the National Manufactures will deem the weaving of tapestries after earlier paintings by the artist pertinent.

At the origin of our tapestry, we find the xylography intended to illustrate “the Mouse” in Apollinaire’s bestiary. From this model, enlarged, colored, bordered, with the poem text and the initials of the artist and the author, Dufy, at the request of a couple of collectors, creates, in 1919, a gouache intended to serve as a mock‑up for the making of a tapestry, which was finally woven much later. This work testifies to an unusual solicitation for the artist, who, as early as 1919, had to question the specificities inherent to wool work, long before being solicited by Lurçat or the National Manufactures.