Honeysuckles
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Goubely workshop.
With its label signed by the artist, No. 1.
1973.
Benedictine monk and illuminator, Dom Robert met Jean Lurçat in 1941 at En Calcat abbey: without ceasing to draw (his watercolours, taken from the motif, will serve as a formal repertoire for his tapestries), his work as a cartoonist (he is a member of the A.P.C.T. from its creation) takes on considerable importance (about a hundred cartoons, numbered), and enjoys unprecedented success. His style is easily recognizable: refusal of perspective, subjects inspired by Nature (of a paradisiacal nature) where flora and fauna treated in an imagistic way are joyfully intertwined in a lush exuberance, and where one detects the influence of medieval mille-fleurs tapestries; poetic and colourful, the cartoons of Dom Robert embody the spiritual asceticism of their author.
Inaugurated in the Spring of 2015, the musée Dom Robert opened its doors in in the monastery-school in Sorèze in the department of the Tarn.
Goats and leaves in all their variety, rather than "Honeysuckles", dom Robert never hesitating over plays on words (cf. "Plein champ"). The goat motif appears precisely in this last cartoon, from 1970. Here, on a unique scale on this theme, the goats unfold in an autumnal nature, a reminder precisely of "l'Automne", which concludes in 1943 its series on the Seasons.
A similar design is on display at the Cité Internationale de la Tapisserie in Aubusson.
Bibliography:
Cat. Expo. Dom Robert, recent tapestries, La Demeure gallery, 1974, ill.p.15, cartoon, p.23
Collective, Dom Robert, Tapestries, Julliard Editions, 1980, ill. p.70-71, detail on cover, cartoon p.85
Collective, Dom Robert, Tapestries, Siloë-Sodec Editions, 1990, ill. p.62-67
Cat. Expo. Dom Robert, woven work, Angers, Jean Lurçat Museum and contemporary tapestry, 1990
Cat. Expo. Tribute to Dom Robert, Departmental Museum of Tapestry, Aubusson, 1998
Collective, the key to the fields, Dom Robert, Privat Editions, 2003, ill. p.124
Collective, the seasons of Dom Robert, Tapestries, Hazan Editions, 2014, ill p.164-167
B. Ythier, Visitor's Guide, International City of Tapestry of Aubusson, ill. p.65
R. Guinot, special issue La Montagne, a City for the tapestry of Aubusson, 2018, ill. p.82
Collective, French tapestry, Editions du Patrimoine, 2017, ill. 312-313
