Owls
Tapestry woven by the Wit factory.
Circa 1960.
Edmond Dubrunfaut can perhaps be considered the great reviver of Belgian tapestry in the 20th century. He founded a weaving workshop in Tournai in 1942, then created the Tournai Tapestry Restoration Center He supplied numerous cartoons to various Belgian workshops (Chaudoir, de Wit, etc.), notably for decorating Belgian embassies around the world. Furthermore, from 1947 to 1978, Dubrunfaut taught monumental art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Mons , and then, in 1979, participated in the creation of the Tournai Tapestry, Textile Arts, and Mural Arts Foundation , a true repository of tapestry in Wallonia. His figurative style, often using strong color contrasts, is very much inspired by animals and nature (like Perrot for example, the artist has a strong affinity for ornithology).
From 1955 onwards, and throughout the 1960s, the Wit factory wove a considerable number of tapestries after Dubrunfaut, the human figure soon giving way to floral subjects, and, above all, birds.
Bibliography:
Cat. Expo. Dubrunfaut and the renaissance of tapestry, paintings, drawings, Museum of Fine Arts of Mons, 1982-1983.
