Edmond DUBRUNFAUT

Flora of the Tropics

"Flore des tropiques" (Aubusson tapestry woven in the Four workshop.
With its bolduc, n°EA.
Circa 1975.

Edmond Dubrunfaut may be considered the great renovator of Belgian tapestry in the 20th century. He founded a weaving workshop in Tournai as early as 1942, then in 1947 created the  Tournai Tapestry Renovation Centre in Tournai. It will supply, for various Belgian workshops (Chaudoir, de Wit, ...), numerous cartoons intended in particular to decorate Belgian embassies across the world. In addition, Dubrunfaut, from 1947 to 1978, taught monumental art at theAcademy of Fine Arts of Mons , then, in 1979, took part in the creation of the Tournai Foundation for Tapestry, Textile Arts and Wall Arts, a veritable conservatory of tapestry in Wallonia. Its style, figurative and making use of strong colour contrasts, is often highly inspired by animals and nature (as with Perrot, for example; the artist had a strong leaning toward ornithology).

In the final phase of his career, Dubrunfaut expressed himself in a fairy-like style (with sharply contoured forms close to Marc Petit), whose subject matter (hummingbirds and exotic plants) echoes Lurçat of the 1950s.