Owls
Tapestry woven by the Wit manufactory.
c. 1960.
Edmond Dubrunfaut may be considered the great renovator of Belgian tapestry in the 20th century. He founded a weaving workshop in Tournai as early as 1942, then in 1947 created the Tapestry Renovation Centre of Tournai in Tournai. It will supply, for various Belgian workshops (Chaudoir, de Wit, ...), numerous cartoons intended in particular to decorate Belgian embassies across the world. In addition, Dubrunfaut, from 1947 to 1978, taught monumental art at theAcademy of Fine Arts of Mons , then, in 1979, took part in the creation of the Foundation of Tapestry, Textile Arts and Wall Arts of Tournai, a veritable conservatory of tapestry in Wallonia. Its style, figurative, using strong contrasts of colours often, is very much inspired by animals and nature (as with Perrot, for example: the artist had a strong predilection for ornithology).
From 1955, and throughout the 1960s, the Wit manufactory wove a considerable number of tapestries after Dubrunfaut; the human figure soon gave way to floral subjects, and above all, birds.
Bibliography:
Cat. Expo. Dubrunfaut et la renaissance de la tapisserie, tableaux, dessins, peintures, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Mons, 1982-1983.
