Honeysuckles
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Atelier Goubely.
With its bolduc Signed by the artist, n°1.
1973.
A Benedictine monk and illuminator, Dom Robert met Jean Lurçat in 1941 at the Abbey of En Calcat: without ever ceasing to draw (his watercolors, taken from life, served as a formal repertoire for his tapestries). His work as a painter-cartoonist (he was a member of the A.P.C.T. from its founding) took on considerable scale (around a hundred numbered cartoons) and enjoyed unprecedented, enduring success. His style is easily recognizable: refusal of perspective; subjects inspired by Nature (a paradise-like Nature) in which flora and fauna, treated in an imaginative manner, intertwine cheerfully in a luxuriant exuberance, and in which one can discern the influence of medieval mille-fleurs tapestries. Poetic and colorful, the cartoons of Dom Robert embody the spiritual asceticism of their author.
His style is easily recognizable: refusal of perspective; subjects inspired by Nature (a paradise-like Nature) in which flora and fauna, treated in an imaginative manner, intertwine cheerfully in a luxuriant exuberance, and in which one can discern the influence of medieval mille-fleurs tapestries.
Poetic and colorful, the cartoons of Dom Robert embody the spiritual asceticism of their author. Opened in spring 2015, the museum Dom Robert is established in Sorèze, in the Tarn, within the former Abbey-School. Goats and leaves in all their variety, rather than "Chèvrefeuilles", Dom Robert having never hesitated over wordplay (cf. "Plein champ"). The motif of the goat appears precisely in this last cartoon, from 1970. Here, at a unique scale on this theme, the goats unfold in an autumnal nature, recalling "Autumn," which closes, in 1943, his series on the Seasons.
The motif of the goat appears precisely in this last cartoon, from 1970.
Bibliography:
Cat. Expo. Dom Robert, Recent tapestries, Galerie La Demeure, 1974, ill. p.15, carton, p.23
Collectif, Dom Robert, Tapestries, Editions Julliard, 1980, ill. p.70-71, detail on cover, carton p.85
Collectif, Dom Robert, Tapestries, Editions Siloë-Sodec, 1990, ill. p.62-67
Cat. Expo. Dom Robert, œuvre tissé, Angers, Musée Jean Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, 1990
Cat. Expo. Hommage à Dom Robert, Musée départemental de la tapisserie, Aubusson, 1998
Collectif, la clef des champs, Dom Robert, Editions Privat, 2003, ill. p.124
Collectif, les saisons de Dom Robert, Tapestries, Editions Hazan, 2014, ill. p.164-167
B. Ythier, Guide du visiteur, Cité Internationale de la tapisserie d’Aubusson, ill. p.65
R. Guinot, hors-série la Montagne, une Cité pour la tapisserie d’Aubusson, 2018, ill. p.82
Collectif, la tapisserie française, Editions du Patrimoine, 2017, ill. 312-313
S. Guérin-Gasc, Dom Robert, monk and artist, éditions Hazan, 2025, ill. p.189
