Amazonia
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Hamot workshop.
With his label signed by the artist.
1962.
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 Tapestry Cartoonists and Painters), and soon became 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 Mans Theatre, the France liner 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 stars (the sun, the moon, the stars ...), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds ...), man, and texts coexist....
Since "Orénoque", from 1956 (Bruzeau no. 72), South America regularly returns to Picart le Doux. Here, "la huppe", cartoon vertical (Bruzeau no. 97) is extended horizontally by the river inhabited by turtles, fish, ..., in a beautiful decorative effect.
Bibliography:
Marthe Belle-Jouffray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d'art et d'histoire, 1966, ill. no. 7;
Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972, ill. no. 129
Exhibition catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, tapisseries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976;
Exhibition catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980, no. 14 ill.
