The trident of Neptune
Aubusson tapestry woven by Berthaut workshop.
1946.
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 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 Théâtre du Mans, the liner France or the Prefecture of Creuse, .... If the conceptions of Picart le Doux are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration, his themes, are too, 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, ....
Our cartoon, one of the artist's first, demonstrates his allegorical and mythological references (cf. “the treasure of Amphitrite” from 1949) to treat the Sea. A nearby tapestry, “the seaweed”, is more literal.
Bibliography :
Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966
Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murailles de laine, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972, n°6
Exhibition catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, tapisseries, Saint-Denis, Musée, 1976
Exhibition catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Boulogne sur Mer, bibliothèque municipale, 1978
Exhibition catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Paris, musée de la Poste, 1980
Exhibition catalogue Jean Picart le Doux, Saint Jean d'Orbestier, Abbaye, 1992
