The 3 butterflies
Tapestry d’Aubusson woven by the Picaud workshop. With its bolduc Signed by the artist’s widow, No. 1/6. Circa 1980. 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 of Painter-cartoonists for Tapestry), and soon became a teacher at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts décoratifs. The State commissioned him to produce numerous woven cartoons, mostly for Aubusson, and for some for the Gobelins: the most spectacular were created for the University of Caen, the Théâtre du Mans, the liner France, or the Préfecture of the Creuse,… If Picart le Doux’s designs were close to those of Lurçat, so were his sources of inspiration and themes—but in a more decorative than symbolic register, where the constellations (the sun, the moon, the stars…), the elements, and nature (grain, the vine, fish, birds…), humankind, texts,… are all brought together. If there is a preferred theme for Lurçat, the butterfly was rarer in Picart le Doux. Even here, and despite the title, its presence was marginal: the cartoon in fact reproduces “Lumière”, in a minor key, from 1960. Bibliographie : Marthe Belle-Joufray, Jean Picart le Doux, Publications filmées d’art et d’histoire, 1966 Maurice Bruzeau, Jean Picart le Doux, Murs de soleil, Editions Cercle d’art, 1972 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, tapisseries, Musée de Saint-Denis, 1976 Cat. Exp. Jean Picart le Doux, Musée de la Poste, 1980
