The trawler
Tapestry from Aubusson woven by the Berthaut workshop. With its bolduc Signed. 1952.
Jean Picart le Doux was one of the great promoters of the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field dated from 1943: he then made cartoons for the ocean liner “la Marseillaise”. Close to Lurçat, whose theories (limited tones, numbered cartoons, …) he adopted, he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie), and soon became a professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts décoratifs. The State commissioned him to make numerous cartoons woven for the most part in Aubusson, and for some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular were for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the ocean liner France, or the Préfecture of the Creuse, … If the designs by Picart le Doux were close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes were too, but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where the stars (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, nature (wheat, the vine, fish, birds…), humankind, texts, … sit alongside one another. “One of Picart le Doux’s most famous tapestries: the composition is very tightly organized, and the generous curves of the filet underline the choice of a broad, simple writing.”: thus Maurice Bruzeau expresses himself in the notice he devoted to this tapestry (no. 37 of his book). “Le Chalut” joined the marine themes omnipresent in the artist’s work, especially in those years: “Dieu Marin”, “La Sirène”, “le Dauphin”, “Fruits de mer”, “Etoiles de mer”, in a muted colour palette based on khaki and silver-grey. Here the treatment is more documentary (apart from the presence of the trident): it is fishing as Picart le Doux saw it. Bibliography : Léon Moussinac, Jean Picart le Doux, Editions Cercle d’art,1964 (reproduit Pl.10) Marthe Belle-Jouffray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966, reproduit n°4 Cat. Exp., Hommage à Jean Picart le Doux, Centre artistique et littéraire de Rochechouart, 1968 (reproduite) Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs du soleil, Editions Cercle d’art 1972 Cat.Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Paris, Musée de la Poste, 1980 (reproduit) Cat. Exp. Picart le Doux, château d’Olonne, 1992, reproduit
