The flame bird
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop.
With its selvedge signed by the artist.
Circa 1960.
Jean Picart le Doux was one of the leading figures in the revival of tapestry. His career began in 1943 when he created cartoons for the ocean liner "La Marseillaise." Close to Lurçat, whose theories he embraced (limited tones, numbered cartoons, etc.), he was a founding member of the APCT (Association of Tapestry Cartoon Painters) and soon after became a professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The French government commissioned numerous cartoons from him, most of which were woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins Manufactory: the most spectacular were for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the ocean liner France, and the Prefecture of Creuse, among others. While Picart le Doux's designs 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, vines, fish, birds…), man, texts,…. coexist.
The design was taken from the 1954 "lyrebird" design, a larger and more elaborate cartoon, including the French garden motif. Picart le Doux was known for recycling elements from previous cartoons.
Bibliography:
Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Filmed Publications of Art and History, 1966;
Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of Sunlight, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972
; Exhibition Catalog: Jean Picart le Doux, Tapestries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976
; Exhibition Catalog: Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980
