The Lyre
Aubusson tapestry woven by 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 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 lyre motif, like that of the harp, is one of the leitmotifs of the artist. Apollonian motif, the lyre appears regularly with the sun (cf. for example “Soleil-lyre”, Bruzeau n°82), but also as a symbol of time (like the 18th century pendulum balances, one of the artist's cartoons with a lyre motif is called “le balancier”: sale Lille, 17.6.01 n°464) : “les Phases du temps” (cf. Armelle Bouchet Mazas, the France liner, Editions Norma, 2006, p.72) which adorn the first-class smoking room of the France.
Strangely, our cartoon does not appear in Bruzeau's book: perhaps it is a special order in connection with a scientific or industrial organization, given the shape that appears across the lyre.
Bibliography :
Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of Sun, Cercle d'art Editions, 1972
Armelle Bouchet Mazas, the France ocean liner, Norma Editions, 2006
