Jean PICART LE DOUX

Jean Picart le Doux is one of the major figures in the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he created cartoons for the liner 'la Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he adopted (limited tones, numbered cartoons,…), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Cartoonists-Tapestry Artists) and soon became a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissioned numerous cartoons from him, most of which were woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones were for the University of Caen, the Mans Theatre, the France liner, or the Creuse Prefecture,…. If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also similar, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), elements, nature (wheat, vine, fish, birds…), man, and texts coexist,….

Seaweed (and more broadly the underwater world) has been a leitmotif for Picart le Doux throughout his career, since "the seaweed" of 1946; one can cite "Spiralgues", "Seaweed Bush", "the green seaweed",… "The small seaweed" reprises, on a smaller scale, "the seaweed", cartoon of 260 x 250 cm, Leleu being the publisher. The eponymous seaweed, like a vegetable lace, surrounds a square arrangement of shells and starfish, a still life that is the true subject of cartoon.

Bibliography:
Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Filmed Art and History Publications, 1966
Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of Sun, Editions Cercle d'art, 1972
Exh. Cat. Jean Picart le Doux Tapestries, Municipal Museum of Art and History, Saint-Denis, 1976
Exh. Cat. Jean Picart le Doux, Postal Museum, 1980