Camille HILAIRE

Lured by the large surface area formats, and under the influence of Untersteller at the École des Beaux-Arts, Hilaire executed numerous mural paintings. Logically, from 1949 onward, alongside many other artists stimulated by Lurçat (he would belong to, with him, the A.P.C.T., Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie), he produced numerous Cartoons (a few dozen), some of which were woven at Beauvais or at the Gobelins. Our tapestry appeared in the dining room of the villa Médy Roc, at Cap d’Antibes, whose fitting-out and decorative scheme were carried out by the Leleu firm from 1957; on that occasion, continuing Jacques Adnet’s research on the interweaving between architecture, furniture, and tapestry, coordinated under the direction of an ensemble maker, Leleu sought to uphold a tradition of refined “French taste”, enhanced by the know-how of the finest representatives of the decorative arts of the period. It was within this acknowledged lineage that, first, a “Jardin à la française” was placed, in the dining room, by Hilaire himself, before, in 1964, our tapestry joined it there, combining the traditional trellises with birds imbued with a pronounced exoticism. The 2 tapestries appear in « les seins de glace », Lautner’s film with Delon, Brasseur, and Mireille Darc, shot on location. Provenance: villa Médy Roc, Cap d’Antibes. Bibliography: Cat. Expo., Hilaire, oeuvre tissé, galerie Verrière, 1970. Cat. Expo. Hilaire, du trait à la lumière, Musée Départemental Georges de la Tour à Vic-sur-Seille, 2010.