Autumn–Winter
Aubusson tapestry woven by the Atelier Pinton. With its bolduc, No. 6/6. Circa 1975.
Jean Picart le Doux was one of the leading figures in the revival of tapestry. His beginnings in the field dated back to 1943: he then produced cartoons for the liner “la Marseillaise”. Close to Lurçat, whose theories he adopted (limited tones, Numbered cartoons,…), he was a founding member of the A.P.C.T. (Association des Peintres-cartonniers de Tapisserie), and soon became a teacher at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts décoratifs. The State commissioned him to produce many woven cartoons, mostly at Aubusson, and for some at the Gobelins: the most spectacular were made for the Université de Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the liner France, or the Préfecture of the Creuse,…. While the designs of Picart le Doux were close to those of Lurçat, his sources of inspiration and themes were too, albeit in a more decorative than symbolic register, where the celestial bodies (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, nature (grain, vines, fish, birds…), humankind, texts,… all coexist. The theme of the seasons was a commonplace in the history of tapestry, which the cartoon makers of the 20th century set out to reinvigorate, with Lurçat at the forefront (cf. his Seasons tapestry ordered by the State as early as 1939). With Picart le Doux, the inspiration was twofold: Nature, of course, but also Music. “Winter”, treated allegorically, one of the artist’s best-known cartoons dates to 1950; however, it is “Hommage à Vivaldi” of 1963, with its four seasons represented symbolically by colored suns, set with zodiacal signs, and sources of vegetation, that is taken up in our cartoon by transposing the motifs horizontally. Bibliography : Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972
