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 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, the 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 series of cartoons by Picart le Doux around the themes of the lyre and the harp: the geometric rigor 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, Walls of sun, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972
Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Post Museum, 1980
