Orpheus' Procession
Aubusson tapestry woven by Berthaut workshop.
1961.
Jean Picart le Doux is one of the great animators of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field date back to 1943: he then created cartoons for the liner 'La Marseillaise'. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he espouses (limited tones, numbered cartoons, ...), he is a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association of Tapestry Cartoonists and Painters), and soon became a professor at the National Higher School of Decorative Arts. The State commissions numerous cartoons, most of which are woven in Aubusson, and some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular ones will be for the University of Caen, the Mans Theatre, the France liner or the Prefecture of Creuse, .... If Picart le Doux's conceptions are close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes are also, 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....
“The Bestiary or the Procession of Orpheus” is a collection of poems by Apollinaire, which Picart le Doux will illustrate with lithographs in 1962 (after Raoul Dufy, in the original edition). He simultaneously designed a tapestry cartoon, in the form of a checkerboard dear to Lurçat, where, in the squares, appear crayfish, goat or lion,…., in different aspects, varied, of the animal kingdom.
Bibliography :
Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Filmed art and history publications, 1966, No. 13
Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Walls of sun, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972, No. 108
Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapestries, Saint-Denis Museum, 1976
Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Boulogne sur Mer, Municipal Library, 1978
Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Paris, Post Museum, 1980
Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Saint John of Orbestier Abbey, 1992
