Sphere and doves
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop.
With its label signed by the artist.
circa 1954.
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 then 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 Painters-Cartoonists of Tapestry), 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 Théâtre du 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 similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where celestial bodies (the sun, the moon, the stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist,…
Typical association of Picart le Doux, where Nature (arranged in a French garden) populated with doves meets a triple allegory of letters (the book), arts (the mandolin), sciences (the sphere) : the incarnation of a classical art of living.
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
