Lucien COUTAUD

A painter and engraver, Lucien Coutaud also worked for the theater with Dullin and Barrault, creating numerous sets and costumes. However, it was his meeting with Marie Cuttoli in 1933 that led him to tapestry; she initially commissioned him primarily to design chair covers. Most of his subsequent tapestries were woven at Pinton for the Compagnie des Arts Français, which aimed to integrate tapestry into interior design. The artist's last three tapestries in 1960 attest to his renown, as "Exotic Gardens" adorned the First Class lounge of the ocean liner "France." Coutaud's qualities as a scenographer, influenced by Surrealism, are reflected in his woven work: his world is figurative, yet stylized (the forms are sharp and fragmented), resolutely dreamlike, and often features unusual borders.

"Chamber Music" seems far removed from the tragic times of war: the unsettling rough edges of later tapestries are not yet present, but dreamlike qualities, the beauty of the faces, the floral border, and the artist's recurring motifs are already evident. A copy of the tapestry was included in the 1946 exhibition.

Bibliography:
L'amour de l'art, la tapisserie Française, 1946, ill. p.181;
Collective, Muraille et laine, éditions pierre Tisné, 1946, plate 55;
Jean Lurçat, Tapisserie française, Bordas, 1947, plate 34;
Cat. Exp. Lucien Coutaud, oeuvre tissé, Aubusson, Musée Départemental de la Tapisserie, 1988-1989, illustrated p.17