François FAUREAU

François Faureau is a singular figure. Born in Aubusson, he studied at the ENAD, of which at the time the director was Marius Martin who was already promoting the use of thick yarn and counted colours that Lurçat would later adopt. Thus he was a representative of the peintre-cartonniers at the stand of the ENAD at the Exposition internationale des Arts décoratifs in 1925 with his tapestry “Solitude, verdure” or the screen “Canards”, which hesitate between neo-classicism and the influence of cubism. He later founded his own workshop, but his production remained somewhat confidential, and somewhat removed from the protagonists of the “Tapestry Renaissance”.

Although the workshops in Aubusson continued their activity during the occupation (as did the Manufactures Nationales), the production of pieces directly influenced by the imposition of the values of Pétain’s government are rare, despite the fact that this typically traditional skill undoubtedly coincided with the values of what was known at the time as the National Revolution. The famous formula spoken by Maréchal Pétain on 25^th June 1940 (although its author was Emmanuel Berl), which went on to become a leitmotiv in the official public discourse, exalting the countryside, society’s peasant roots and, rather more prosaically, agriculture, is illustrated here in a very literal fashion bringing together the various rural tasks, vegetation, architecture and animals… all harmoniously exposed under the protective watch of the Vichy regime.

Provenance : Collection Régine Deforges

Bibliography :
Exhibition catalogue Tapisseries 1925, Aubusson, Cité de la tapisserie, 2012