The trident of Neptune
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Berthaut workshop. 1946. Jean Picart le Doux was one of the major driving forces behind the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field dated from 1943: he then produced cartoons for the liner “la Marseillaise”. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he adopted (limited tones, Numbered cartoons, …), he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie), and soon became a teacher at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts décoratifs. The State commissioned him with numerous cartoons woven mostly in Aubusson, and for some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular were for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the liner France, or the Prefecture of the Creuse, … If the designs by Picart le Doux were close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and his themes were as well, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where the heavens (the sun, the moon, the stars, …), the elements, nature (wheat, vines, fish, birds, …), humankind, texts, … coexist. Our cartoon, one of the first by the artist, bears witness to his allegorical and mythological references (see “le trésor d’Amphitrite” of 1949) in order to depict the Sea. A related tapestry, “les algues”, is intended to be more literal. Bibliography : Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972, n°6 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapisseries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Boulogne sur Mer, Bibliothèque municipale, 1978 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Paris,Musée de la Poste, 1980 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Abbaye Saint Jean d’Orbestier, 1992
