Snow Stars
Aubusson tapestry woven by Berthaut workshop.
No. 7/8.
1962.
Jean Picart le Doux is one of the major figures in the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he adopted (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Cartoonists-Tapestry Artists) and soon became a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissioned numerous cartoons from him, most of which were woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones were for the University of Caen, the Mans Theatre, the France liner, or the Creuse Prefecture,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist,….
The theme of winter is chracterised in Picart le Doux’s work by the use of templates, colours (muted tones, browns, black, white), and motifs (bare branches, kaleidoscopic flake shapes) ; the snow flakes referred to here will also be used in “Solstice d’hiver” and “Hommage à Vivaldi”.
Bibliography:
Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of sun, Cercle d'art Editions, 1972, ill. No. 122
Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Saint-Denis Museum, 1976
Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Post Museum, 1980
