Concert of birds
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Picaud workshop.
With signed label, 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 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 theme of music is frequently associated with birds in Picart le Doux; this cartoon is a late variation of "the harp of the forests" from 1953.
Bibliography :
Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of sun, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972
Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Saint-Denis Museum, 1976
Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Post Museum, 1980
