Pierre DUBREUIL

The story is well known: following the commission of the “4 parts of the World,” intended to be woven at the Gobelins, Dubreuil was one of 3 artists, with Gromaire and Lurçat, who were sent by Guiillaume Janneau, administrator of the National Manufactories, to Aubusson in late 1939, to renew local tapestry production (with the commission of a wall hanging on the theme of Gardens). While he shared Lurçat’s ideas regarding the influence that medieval tapestry should exert to revitalize the medium, his Cartoons, teeming and resolutely naturalistic (without, for example, the dreamlike element of a Coutaud), kept him apart from his peer, in favor of a closer affinity with Maingonnat’s work.

Our tapestry bears witness to Dubreuil’s collaboration with the A.R.T. (tapestry restoration workshop) of Antoine Behna (whose technical advisor Janneau had been, though Janneau was discredited for the role he played during the War). The allegorical register shows Dubreuil’s classicism, between academic nudes and still lifes reflecting the History of Painting. This workshop wove both in high-warp and low-warp: the 1990 sales catalogue included an example woven in each of the two techniques.

Bibliography :
G. Janneau, A. Behna, Tapisseries de notre temps, 1950, ill. no. 64
Sales Catalogue Millon-Robert, 3.10.1990, no. 29-29, 64